ELEPHAS MELITENSIS. 307 



' The great mass of the specimens contained in the box consist of 

 fragments of the extremities of a small species of Hippopotamus, the 

 most important of which are lower articular ends of femurs, lower ends 

 of humeri, and some of tibias. The bones are for the most part in a 

 very fragmentary condition, and much weathered or rolled. The 

 articular surfaces, as a general rule, are abraded or more or less muti- 

 lated ; one fine specimen consists of the shaft of a femur with the tro- 

 chanter present, but the articular head unluckily broken off and not 

 yet discovered in the collection ; the lower portion has the articular 

 condyles broken off by an ancient fracture. It is not quite clear, 

 therefore, whether the bone belonged to an adult individual or not ; 

 but it indicates a smaller species than Hippopotamus Pentlandi, or any 

 of the other Hippopotamus remains sent previously by Captain Spratt. 

 This, however, will require further and more careful observation. 

 Besides these fragments of the bones of the extremities there have been 

 picked up by Captain Spratt, in a separate compartment, about a dozen 

 molars, some of them very perfect ; the worn last molars with their 

 talons indicating a species of unusually small size, thus corresponding 

 with the indications yielded by the bones of the extremities. There 

 are also some fragments of incisors and some good specimens of 

 inferior canines, all of which will have to be compared with the 

 corresponding teeth from the Maccagnone and San Teodoro caverns, 

 belonging to Hippopotamus. 



' Memo., July 31. — The molars and canines appear mostly to be of 

 the small species, Hipp, minutus, Cuv.' 



III. — Abstract of Communication by Dr. Falconer to the British 

 Association at Cambridge, on October 6, 1862, entitled ' On 

 Ossiferous Caves in Malta, explored by Captain Spratt, 

 C.B., E.N., with an Account of Elephas Melitensis, a pigmy 

 species of Fossil Elephant, and other remains found in 



THEM.' 



Reprinted from ' The Parthenon' for October 18, 1862, p. 780. 



' The author's notice of this interesting discovery was prefaced by a 

 few remarks from Captain Spratt, explanatory of the former geogra- 

 phical connection of the islands of Sicily and Malta with the African 

 continent, as evidenced by their contained fossils and by the shallow 

 soundings which lay between these coasts and that continent. Three 

 caves in Malta had yielded vast numbers of Mammalian bones of very 

 dissimilar character. The first, discovered while quarrying for a dock, 

 contained vast quantities of Hippopotamus bones, and was similar to a 

 cave previously discovered in Crete. The second, lying upon the side 

 of a ravine, three hundred feet above the sea, was partly filled with 

 clay and Elephant bones ; the third contained bones of Hippopotami, 

 associated with remains of a large species of Dormouse. 



' Dr. Falconer, after corroborating the divisional line pointed out by 

 Captain Spratt, which, now represented by a line of roadway of shallow 

 water, formerly existed as a belt of land, dividing the Mediterranean into 

 two basins, and pointing out that the fossil fauna of Italy, Sicily, Malta, 

 and Crete, was that of the African and not of the European continent, 

 proceeded to describe the fossil remains new to science which Captain 



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