AND HIS COTEMPOKAKIES. 595 



the roof of the grotto cavern. But the protracted submer- 

 gence of the wide fissure under the sea was distinctly proved 

 by the polished eastern wall, and by a band thickly drilled 

 by Pholad -borings. It thus became necessary to search 

 elsewhere along the coast, and after examining the other 

 ossiferous caverns in the immediate vicinity of Palermo, I 

 discovered the ' Grotta di Maccagnone,' until then unknown 

 to the Sicilians. 1 An account of this remarkable ossiferous 

 cave, dated Palermo, March 21, 1859, and extracted from a 

 letter addressed to Sir Charles Lyell, was communicated to 

 the Geological Society on the 4th of May ; and on the 22nd 

 June a more detailed description was delivered to the same 

 body, when the collection of specimens illustrative of the 

 history of the cavern was exhibited. 2 They excited lively 

 interest, from the striking manner in which they confirmed 

 the results arrived at by the exploration of the Brixham 

 Cave. The 'Grotta di Maccagnone ' is an open rock-chamber 

 in Hippurite limestone, which had formerly been filled up to 

 the roof with alluvial matters and fossil bones, probably intro- 

 duced from above by rills through refts and crevices in the 

 fissured rock-strata. That the action had been of a tranquil 

 nature was clearly indicated by the presence of large fragile 

 Helicine shells, mingled in perfect integrity with the other 

 materials in the bone-breccia. The long-continued operation 

 of stalagmitic drip had by infiltration solidified the layer 

 immediately in contact with the roof into a thick mass of 

 hard breccia, in which large quantities were discovered of 

 broken siliceous stone-knives, composed of chalcedony, and 

 of the ordinary flake-pattern, presented by the modern obsi- 

 dian razor-knives of Mexico. These were intermixed with 

 entire and comminuted shells, bone splinters, teeth of "horses 

 and ruminants, pieces of burnt clay, bits of charcoal, 

 &c, clearly indicative of the presence of man. In another 

 part of the same roof-breccia abundant remains were dis- 

 covered of the coprolite of a Hysena, which has long been 

 extinct in Europe ; and on the alluvial floor, below the flint- 

 knife breccia, the molar tooth of an Elephant was found, of 



1 In my memoir on the Grotta di Mac- 

 cagnone, I premised the account of it 

 with a description of the physical and 

 geological characters of that portion of 

 the north coast of Sicily between ' Ter- 

 mini on the east and Trapani on the 

 ■west,' in which 'the ossiferous caves 

 abound.' The author of the ' Antiquity 

 of Man' (op. cit. p. 174) asserts that 

 ' geologists have long been familiar with 

 the fact, that on th|> northern coast of 

 Sicily, between Termini on the east and I 



Q Q 



Trapani on the west, there are many 

 caves containing the bones of extinct 

 animals.' Sir Charles Lyell has not 

 shown in what geological works the 

 asserted familiar knowledge is to be 

 found before the appearance of the 

 memoir above referred to. The exist- 

 ence close to Palermo of the ossiferous 

 caves of San Ciro, Belliemi, and Ben 

 Fratelli was of course well known. 

 2 .See antea, p. 543. — [Ed.] 



