306 OSSIFEEOUS CAVES OF MALTA. 



apart for reference. There are also some fragments of tusks and inci- 

 sors, but none of them sufficiently perfect to figure. 



' Besides these there is a series of amorphous fragments of bone, 

 variously splintered, and, therefore, indeterminable, and three deter- 

 minable specimens, No. 14 being the half of the head of a humerus, 

 divided vertically through the middle, the fractured surface clean, flat, 

 and smooth, as if effected through a fault-displacement. Another is 

 the articular end of a radius, and the third the basal part of the spinous 

 process of a vertebra. 



' Next are three slabs of very compact dark grey-coloured stalagmitic 

 matrix. No. 1 contains in strata a great many small fragments of the 

 teeth and bones of a minute mammal ; the molar teeth belong to a large 

 extinct species of Myoxus {Myoxus Melitensis, Falc). 



' There is also one very large rodent incisor with various fragments 

 of ribs, the end of an ulna, &c. One very beautiful molar of Myoxus 

 shows the crown distinctly. 



' These remains are confined to the upper layers of the matrix, 

 through which they are very profusely dispersed ; the compact portion 

 of the stalagmite, about 1^ in. thick, is devoid of fossils, or nearly so, 

 and the weathered surface would indicate that this is the upper surface 

 of the deposit. 



' Slab No. 2 is of the same character, but the fragments of bones 

 contained in it are less perfect. It contains also one fine molar of 

 Myoxus presenting the crown-surface. 



' Slab No. 3 is remarkable in showing the greater part of the shaft of 

 what appears to be a femur, but undeterminable from being crushed at 

 the articular ends. 



' Besides these there is a quantity of detached and weathered minute 

 fragments, inferred to belong chiefly to Myoxus ; of determinable frag- 

 ments amongst these are a molar, part of a jaw, a metacarpal, or meta- 

 tarsal, and a phalangeal bone. 



' One specimen consists of a small canine or outer incisor of a car- 

 nivorous animal, of the size of the Fox. The above includes all the 

 specimens deserving notice. 



' The carnivorous tooth here referred to is the only indication of a 

 feline form being contained amongst the whole of the Crendi specimens. 



' So far as the comparison has been carried, the Crendi specimens 

 differ entirely from those found in the Zebbug Cave.' 



9. Additional Note on the Fossils from Zebbug and Mahlek Caves. 



' Geological Society, Jidy 10, 1862. — Memorandum of supplemen- 

 tary despatch received from Captain Spratt yesterday. — A box con- 

 taining a mixed collection of fossil bones from the newly-discovered 

 cave, called by Captain Spratt the Hippopotami Cave, together with a 

 small box containing numerous fragments, mostly small, and supple- 

 mentary to his previous despatches. Among these are numerous frag- 

 ments of bird-bones ; 2nd, fragments of carapace, &c, of Chelonians ; 

 3rd, a large quantity of fragments of ribs and other bones of mammalia, 

 mostly undeterminable ; 4th, a tin box containing fragments, more or less 

 perfect, of small molars of Elephants ; and lastly, a pill-box containing 

 an undoubted tooth of a carnivore, but of small size, being the first 

 carnivorous indication in the shape of a tooth from the Zebbug Cave. 



