ELEPHAS MELITENSIS. 301 



September 19, 1860. 



' The Hippopotamus of Krendi is the same as the Hippopotamus of 

 Sicily, viz. Hippopotamus Pentlandi, a species a little smaller than the 

 living African form. The age of the animal in Sicily is certainly 

 newer than the older Pliocene, because it overlies the Pliocene con- 

 glomerates. The Sicilian fossil Hippopotamus was not, at least on the 

 northern side of Sicily, in connection with a great freshwater lake. It 

 occurs mixed up with marine Biyozoa ; and upwards of two hundred 

 fossil Pliocene shells, all marine, occur in the deposit beneath it. 

 Graves got the same Hippopotamus from the Tertiaries of Candia. I have 

 examined the teeth in the College of Surgeons. Professor E. Raulin 

 of Bordeaux also met with them in Crete, in a " yellow sandy loam 

 of the Pliocene or newer Pliocene period, in the plain of Katharo, at 

 an elevation of 1,150 metres above the sea (say 3,750 feet). Katharo 

 is to the east of the large plain of Passith, and east of the town of 

 Kritsa, on the eastern side of the Gulf of Mirabello." Raulin con- 

 siders " that the plain of Katharo was formerly an intra-montane lake." 

 Lord Ducie, however, got a tusk of a Hip. Pentlandi which he con- 

 sidered to be from a deposit of a Miocene age. The swimming hypo- 

 thesis for the Hyama will not do. Elephants will not swim across deep 

 sea channels, nor Hyamas either. The case is clear — that there must 

 have been continuity of land between Sicily and Malta, and Sicily and 

 Cape Bono, by Adventure Bank and the Skerki shoal.' 



April 11, 1862. 



' Although the Krendi Mammalia (the Hippopotamus) are the same 

 species as those of Sicily and Crete, and of a newer Pliocene age, I 

 cannot reconcile the Zebbug fossils as being of the same age, and I 

 have a suspicion that they may be upper Mioceue. The fossil Ele- 

 phant of Zebbug is an vmdescribed species of prodigious interest, 

 from its small size, &c. But there are no bones as yet of the skeleton, 

 only the teeth, and there are indications of another larger species. It 

 is of great importance that we should get a sight of all the materials that 

 are available. There are numerous bones in your Zebbug Cave collection 

 that are fiercely gnawed, and evidently by a large predaceous carnivore. 

 But with the exception of a single tooth, of which the crown is com- 

 pletely hammered and denuded of enamel, and therefore indeterminable, 

 there is not a single remain indicative of what this predaceous form 

 was, whether Hyama or something else ; and until this point is cleared 

 up, the history of the Malta caves will be incomplete.' 



II. — Extracts from Dr. Falconer's Note-Books. 



1. List of fossil Elephant's Teeth, from Zebbug, in Captain Spirarfs 



Collection. 

 1 No. 1 a. Milk tusk, with an enamel-shell. 1. Antepenultimate milk 

 molar, probably upper, with a disc of pressure. 2. Germ of penulti- 

 mate milk molar ; has three plates unworn ; probably of lower ; no 

 disc of pressure. 3. Penultimate lower, well worn, three discs and 

 fang; also front disc of pressure. 4. Penultimate lower (right?) with 

 disc of pressure. 5. Penultimate upper left milk molar in germ ; no 

 disc of pressure. 6. Last milk molar, lower ; very fine, entire. 7. 



