142 NEWER PLIOCENE PERIOD. [Ch XI. 



sand again is the secondary limestone of Monte Grifone. The 

 state of the surface of the limestone in the cave above the level 

 of the marine sand is very different from that below it. A hove, 

 the rock is jagged and uneven, as is usual in the roofs and sides 

 of limestone caverns ; below, the surface is smooth and polished, 

 as if by the attrition of the waves. 



So enormous was the quantity of bones, that many ship- 

 loads were exported in the years 1829 and 1830, in the hope 

 of their retaining enough gelatine to serve for refining sugar, 

 for which, however, they proved useless. The bones belong 

 chiefly to the mammoth (". primigenius), and with them are 

 those of an hippopotamus, smaller than the species usually 

 found fossil, and distinct from the recent. Several species of 

 deer were also found with the above*. The remains of a bear, 

 also, are said to have been discovered. 



It is easy to explain in what manner the cavern of Mardolce 

 was in part filled with sea-sand, and how the surface of the 

 limestone became perforated by lithodomi; but in what 

 manner, when the elevation of the rocks and the ancient beach 

 had taken place, was the superimposed osseous breccia formed ? 

 The extraordinary number of the imbedded animal remains 

 precludes, we think, at once the supposition of the whole having 

 been heaped up together by a single catastrophe. Let us sup- 

 pose that, when the caves were at a moderate elevation above 

 the level of the sea, they were exposed, during a succession of 

 earthquakes, to be inundated again and again by waves rolling 

 in upon the land till they reached the base of an inland cliff, 

 not far from the shore. Reiterated catastrophes may thus have 

 occurred, like that of 1783 in Calabria, when a wave broke in 

 upon the coast, and after sweeping away 1400 of the in- 

 habitants and many cattle, threw in upon the land, on its return, 

 the bodies of men and the carcasses of animals, mingled with 

 sand and pebbles. Caves so flooded might be inhabited by 

 some animals, and others might retreat into them during a 

 period of alarm. We attach no importance, however, to these 

 * Cuvier, Disc. Prelim., p. 345. 6th Kd. 



