OSSIFEROUS CAVES OF GIBRALTAR. 



555 



lency's invitation, to visit Gibraltar and examine the general 

 condition of the cave on the spot ; for the discoveries in the 

 Windmill Hill Cave have not only yielded unexpected results 

 regarding the former state and the ancient animal population 

 of the rock itself, but they further point to a land connection 

 between the southern part of the Iberian peninsula and the 

 African continent at no very remote geological epoch. 



Capt. Brome's Report, dated 21st August, 1863, with the 

 plan and section which accompany it, so clearly explains the 

 nature of the Windmill Hill Cave, that it is unnecessary for 

 us to enter on the present occasion into any detailed descrip- 

 tion of it. The rock abounds in caves, which are of two 

 classes. 1st. Seaboard caves at various heights above the 

 level of the sea and horizontally excavated in the ancient 

 clhTs by the waves. 2nd. Inland caves descending from the 

 surface and in connection with great vertical fissures, by 

 which the mass of the rock has been rent at remote epochs 

 during disturbances caused by violent acts of upheavement, 

 like the well-known cavern of St. Michael. The ' Genista ' 

 Cave of Windmill Hill belongs to the second class ; it forms 

 part of a great perpendicular fissure, which, by the vigorous 

 measures adopted by Capt. Brome, has either been excavated 

 or traced downwards to a depth of upwards of 200 feet below 

 the level of the plateau of Windmill Hill. It was full of the 

 fossil remains of quadrupeds and birds, of the former of 

 which some are now wholly extinct, others extinct in Europe 

 and repelled to distant regions of the African continent, 

 others either now living on the rock or in the adjoining 

 Spanish peninsula. 



The following is a list of the species which we have at pre- 

 sent identified : — 



Pachydermata. 



Rhinoceros Etruscus (9). 1 Extinct. 



Rhinoceros leptorhinus (syn. R. megarhinus). Extinct; 



abundant. 

 Equus. Young animals only ; species undetermined. 

 Sus priscus (?). Extinct. 

 Sus scrofa. Living. 



Ruminants. 



Cervus Elaphus, var. barbarus. Fossil remains abundant. 

 Cervus Dama, or a nearly allied form. Abundant. 



1 In the Gibraltar cave we have got 

 an upper half of a femur of a Rhinoceros 

 which is small, old, and indistinguish- 

 able in size and form from R. Etruscus, 

 but no teeth as yet. All the other 



specimens — teeth, tibias, astragalus, 

 atlas, &c, belong to R. leptorhinus (R. 

 megarhinus). — Letter from Br, Falconer 

 to M. Lartet, Sept. 9, 1864.— [Ed.] 



