104 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



that good cabinet specimens are obtained from it. 

 Some charming bits of mingled rock and verdure 

 lie around the bridge which crosses the valley 

 between the villages of Zebbug and Siggieui, that 

 furnish an abundance of material both for the 

 geologist and the botanist. The softer and more 

 friable beds of the Globigerina limestone here 

 take the place of the hard semi-crystalline rock 

 out of which the lower portions of the gorge have 

 been carved ; and from the faces of the low terraced 

 cliffs the fossil remains of scallops, mussels, sea- 

 urchins, sharks' teeth and vertebrae occur in 

 profusion. In the rifts of the terraced slopes 

 luxuriate a wealth of the rarer plants of the islands. 

 Asphodels, squills, irises, rosemary, hyacinths and 

 the ubiquitous oxalis all mingle their colours and 

 their perfumes, and in the winter and spring 

 months convert these rocky wastes into veritable 

 flower-gardens. 



In the upper reaches of this ravine is the classic 

 site of the late Admiral Spratt's discoveries. 

 Within the recesses of a large cave which had 

 been hollowed out of the escarpment that borders 

 Buttigieg's garden, Spratt found masses of cave 

 earth from which he exhumed the remains of 

 the carcases of twenty-two individual elephants, 

 several of which belonged to the dwarf species, 

 Elephas falconeri. This dwarfing of animal life 

 seems to have been a characteristic of the mamma- 

 lian fauna of the Maltese area in Pleistocene times, 

 for the remains of dwarf elephants, dwarf hippo- 

 potami, dwarf bears, dwarf horses that then existed 

 have been found intermingled in the same cave 

 deposits. Spratt's cave has now disappeared, but 

 the bones and molars of these remarkable animals 

 are still occasionally to be found among the debris 

 in the bed of the ravine. 



The south and south-eastern parts of Malta 

 have also yielded an abundance of these remains. 

 The Benhisa Creek was the scene of the late 

 Professor Leith Adams' successful labours in the 

 early sixties. In the agglomerates that fill up 

 the head of the creek he found entire skeletons 

 of monster swans (Cygnus falconeri and C. ala), as 

 well as remains of the giant dormouse (Myoxus 

 melitensis) and Hippopotamus pentlandi. 



Beyond Torre Hamra the low-lying coastline 

 gives place to a succession of fault terraces, 

 bounded by lofty, cavern-pierced cliffs. In the 

 face of one of these fault terraces Adams found 

 a series of caverns, the principal of which he 

 called the Malak Cave, the Mnaidra Gap and 

 the Middle Cave, and from them he obtained a 

 most unique collection of the remains of Malta's 

 prehistoric mammalia. A quarry was commenced 

 in 1891 in the vicinity, and now every vestige of 

 the Malak Cave has disappeared. The Mnaidra 

 Gap is still in existence, but there is little left in 

 it now to indicate the classic discoveries that were 



once made within its depths. It was found by 

 Adams to be filled with alternating layers of loam, 

 breccia and stalagmites, and embedded in each of 

 these was found a curious assemblage of remains. 

 Molars, tusks and limb-bones of three species of 

 elephants {Elephas mnaidra, E. falconeri, E. meli- 

 tensis) were found mingled in the greatest confusion 

 with the remains of gigantic dormice {Myoxus 

 melitensis) and swans {Cygnus olor and C. falconeri)' 

 In one part of the excavation, barely measuring 

 six feet in area, there were exhumed twelve molars 

 and six tusks of elephants, all of which belonged 

 to a new species, Elephas mnaidra. 



The Malak Cave was scarcely less prolific. The 

 characteristic fossils of the Mnaidra Gap were 

 elephants, without a trace of hippopotami. But 

 though the Malak Cave was within a hundred 

 yards of the Gap, its characteristic fossils offered a 

 marked contrast, consisting of hippopotami, with 

 but a few elephant remains, and a considerable 

 quantity of the small, fragile bones of weasels, 

 bats and owls. In the talus which lines the 

 slopes along the fault face, blocks of ossiferous 

 stalagmite containing perfect molars and limb- 

 bones of hippopotami are still to be had in 

 abundance. 



Between Mnaidra and the quarry the declivitous 

 slopes of the fault descend in a series of platform 

 terraces to the sea. On the second of these, and at 

 a distance of about eighty yards to the east of the 

 quarry, are situated the remnants of the Middle 

 Cave. The view of the island from this point is 

 very picturesque. Stretching away to the north- 

 west are the cliff-crags that overlook the Malak 

 downthrow, their summits seared, fissured and 

 caverned, and their bases broken up into creeks 

 and headlands; while to the south-east they extend 

 to the Hamra Tower and thence gradually die 

 away in the waters of the Mediterranean. In 

 the compact breccia that this cave contained 

 were found the remains of the Maltese dormouse, 

 the hippopotamus, and - the limb-bones and skull 

 of a crane {Grus melitensis) and of a vulture 

 (Gyps melitensis). Portions of the breccia have 

 been left on the roofs and sides of the cave, and 

 in them the finding of these fossil remains is 

 still a not infrequent occurrence. The caves and 

 fissures of Benhisa, Shantin, Gandia and San 

 Leonardo were each in turn explored by Adams, 

 and each added their quota , to the evidences 

 already obtained. 



In 1869 Professor Leith Adams left Malta, and 

 for nearly twenty years after his departure little 

 or nothing was done on the island's geology. In 

 1889 I commenced where Adams and Spratt left 

 off, and with the assistance of three grants from 

 the Royal Society of London ( 1 ), I undertook the 



(•) Cooke, J. H.: "On the Har Dalam Cavern," Proc. 

 Royal Soc, Feb., 1893. 



