562 OSSIFEROUS CAVES OF GIBRALTAR. 



exploration of the Windmill Hill Cavern, under the support 

 and enlightened countenance and encouragement which we 

 are well aware he has uniformly received from your Excel- 

 lency during the progress of his operations, and which have 

 led in a great measure to their successful issue. The only 

 account of the mineralogy of Gibraltar that has been pub- 

 lished is in the excellent ' Brief Description ' by Major Imrie, 

 of the Royal Artillery, which appeared in the ' Edinburgh 

 Philosophical Transactions' in 1797. In 1844 Mr. Smith, 

 of Jordan Hill, brought out his valuable memoir on the 

 Geology of Gibraltar ; but the fossil mammalian remains of 

 the bone-breccia were only very cursorily noticed by both 

 authors. In the latter half of the last century they attracted 

 the attention of William and John Hunter, in papers which 

 are to be found in the ' Royal Transactions,' but without an 

 attempt at precise identification. Cuvier, in his great work, 

 the 'Ossemens Fossiles,' in 1823, gave a special chapter on 

 the ossiferous breccias, and devoted much attention to those 

 of the Mediterranean. From the materials derived from the 

 rock which passed under his hands, he was able to detect 

 evidence only of two extinct species, one of which is doubtful. 

 He concludes his remarks on the Gibraltar remains in the 

 following terms : — 



' Voila done dans ce petit nombre d'os de Gibraltar que 

 j'ai pu me procurer, au moins une espece de lievre et proba- 

 blement une espece de cerf, dont les pareils ne sont pas con- 

 nus en Europe. 



' Que seroit-ce si quelque naturaliste residant sur les lieux 

 prenoit la peine de recueillir et de degager avec soin ceux 

 qui se decouvriroient pendant quelques annees, comme je l'ai 

 fait pour les ossemens de nos gypses ? D'apres ce que nous 

 allons voir dans les articles suivans, on ne pent douter qu'il 

 n'y fit des recoltes abondantes et interessantes.' (Op. cit. 

 tome iv. p. 174.) 



From that period down to the present day hardly any ad- 

 dition has been made to our knowledge of the subject, during 

 a lapse of forty years, until Capt. Brome undertook the ex- 

 ploration of the ' Genista Cave ; ' and the best commentary 

 upon the preceding citation is furnished by the fact that the 

 materials collected by him have enabled us to determine up- 

 wards of twent) r species of mammalia above enumerated, 

 many of them extinct, and all of them bearing importantly 

 on the ancient condition of Gibraltar. Indeed it is within 

 the facts of the case to say that, in the important walk of the 

 mammalian palaeontology of Gibraltar, Capt. Brome has done 

 more than was effected by the united labours of his prede- 

 cessors since the rock became a British possession. The per- 



