558 OSSIFEROUS CAVES OF GIBRALTAR. 



individuals of Ibex swept into the Windmill Hill fissure ; in 

 no instance have we observed fossil bones attributable to one 

 complete skeleton of any one of the larger mammalia. 



That the rock now so denuded of arboreal vegetation was 

 then partially clothed with trees and shrubs, as the corres- 

 ponding limestone mountains on the opposite side of the 

 straits are at present, is so legitimate an inference as hardly 

 to be open to rational doubt. It is now a pinch to find suffi- 

 cient food at the end of the hot season for the flocks of goats 

 which are reared on the promontory ; while it is a matter of 

 absolute difficulty to find fodder at all for the few cows that 

 are kept by some of the officers of the garrison. When ele- 

 phants, rhinoceros, wild oxen, horse, boar, deer, &c, &c. 

 either peopled or resorted to the rock in considerable num- 

 bers, there must have been abundant trees and more or less 

 constant green food for them. Bare exposed masses of rock 

 get intensely heated by a southern sun, they repel moisture 

 by being thus heated, and raise the mean temperature of 

 the locality by radiation ; while, on the contrary, a clothing 

 of trees and of fruticose vegetation both tempers the heat, 

 attracts moisture, and greatly increases the fall of rain. We 

 are aware that your Excellency's attention has been directed 

 to planting-operations on the 'rock.' Numerous and re- 

 peated failures must be looked for at the commencement ; 

 but the facts above mentioned would indicate that suc- 

 cess may ultimately be attained, with much benefit to the 

 station. 



The next prominent point in the case is the character of 

 the extinct fauna of Gibraltar regarded as a group. Of the 

 prevailing fossil forms which occur in England, Germany, 

 and France, as far south as the northern slope of the Pyre- 

 nees and the shores of the Mediterranean, such as the Mam- 

 moth, Rhinoceros tichorhinus, JJrsus spelceus, Hycena spelcea, 

 &C., 1 not a vestige has been detected among the fossil re- 

 mains of Gibraltar. In the latter the Carnivora are the most 

 significant. The three species of Felis are of African affini- 

 ties ; and Hycena brunnea, 2 now for the first time ascertained 

 to have existed formerly in Europe, is at the present day chiefly 

 found near the Cape of Good Hope and Natal. That any of 

 these wild animals could have crossed the straits from Barbary 

 to Europe is contrary to all probability. The obvious inference 

 is that there was a connection by land, 3 either circuitous or 



1 Letter to M. Lartet, Sept. 29, 1864. | 2 This identification has since been 

 ' We found not a trace of Cermis Taran- j shown to be an error. — See antea, p. 

 dus, or of the Lagomys figured by I 556, note 2. — [Ed.] 

 Cuvier.'— [Ed.] 3 See antea, pp. 552-3.— [Ed.] 



