SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



105 



systematic investigation of the superficial breccias 

 of the islands (' 2 ) and of several caves which had 

 escaped the notice of my predecessors. One of 

 these, the Har Dalam Cavern, supplied those very 

 links in Malta's Pleistocene fauna which Adams 

 suspected existed, but which he never had the 

 good luck to find. From the gnawed condition of 

 many of the bones that he unearthed, he inferred 

 the existence of carnivora contemporary with the 

 pigmy elephant and hippopotamus, but none of 

 the caves that he explored gave other than indirect 

 evidences of their presence. The discovery of the 

 remains of a wolf, a fox and a species of Ursus 

 (arctos ?) in the Har Dalam Cavern in 1892 ( 8 ) 

 effectually decided this question. 



This Cavern, which I explored in 1892-93, is 

 situated in a gorge of the same name, in the 

 vicinity of Marsa Scirocco, at the south-eastern 



alternating layers of loam, clay and stalagmite. 

 From the lower layers were obtained many 

 hundreds of limb-bones, jaws, teeth, and tusks of 

 Hippopotamus pentlandi, a tooth of Elephas mnaidra, 

 and a jaw of an extinct species of bear. In the 

 upper layers were found thousands of limb-bones, 

 jaws and horns of Cervus barbarus, a stone imple- 

 ment, traces of a fire, and some specimens of an 

 exceedingly rude, coarse kind of pottery. 



About two hundred yards further up the gorge 

 is situated the Victoria Cavern, the excavation 

 of which did not afford very much worthy of 

 note. 



The conclusions which the Har Dalam Cavern 

 and Gorge lead to are that the cavern and its 

 deposits owe their origin to the action of powerful 

 streams of water that formerly swept the gorge, 

 and that the cavern was eroded to its present form 



Jaws and Teeth of Ursus (arctos?). 



extremity of Malta. Its mouth abuts on the cliff- 

 face at a height, of about forty feet above the 

 bed of the gorge, the bottom of which is strewn 

 throughout its length with rounded boulders and 

 pebbles, all of which have been derived from the 

 rocks in the vicinity. Both sides of the gorge 

 exhibit evidences of the former action of torrential 

 volumes of water. The cavern is situated 500 

 yards from the shore, and it consists of a main 

 gallery 400 feet in length, and of several smaller 

 tunnels and chambers, the total length being 700 

 feet. 



The deposits found in the cave consisted of 



( 2 ) Cooke, J. H. : "The Pleistocene Beds of Gozo," Geol. 

 Mag., vol. vili. No. 326, p. 348; "The Pleistocene Beds of 

 Malta," Quar. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. li. 1895 ; " On the Occur- 

 rence of a Black Limestone in Maltese Strata," Geol. Mag., 

 vol. ix. No. 338, p. 361 ; " The Pleistocene Beds of the 

 Maltese Islands," Geol. Mag., vol. iii. p. 383, 1896. 



( 3 ) Cooke, J. H.: "Ursus in the Pleistocene of Malta," 

 Geol. Mag., vol. x. No. 344, p. 67. 



before any of the deposits now found in it were 

 laid down. It was repeatedly flooded by the muddy 

 waters of the torrents that then flowed nearly forty 

 feet higher than the little streamlet does that now 

 meanders through the bottom of the gorge during 

 the. winter season. As the gorge deepened, the 

 force of the waters that invaded the cavern 

 lessened, and the remains of the animals that had 

 been washed in were deposited quietly with the 

 sediments now constituting the floor deposits. 

 Occasionally, however, the torrents swept the 

 cavern with irresistible violence, and mixed the 

 remains that had been carried into it at an earlier 

 period with the later sediments, transported large 

 boulders into its depths, and broke off the stalactites 

 that had formed on its roof and sides. The lower 

 beds exhibit every evidence of these disturbing 

 forces, but the upper beds of the series testify to 

 conditions of comparative tranquility. 



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