xlviii PEOCEEDINGS OP THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



time he zealously prosecuted tlie same line of investigation in 

 Sicily and in Italy, particularly in tlie Yal d'Arno, wliere lie en- 

 deavoured to reduce to something like systematic order the mass 

 of fossil bones there found. In Sicily he discovered the famous 

 G-rotto di Maccagnone, where flint implements of great antiquity 

 were found adhering to the roof-matrix, mingled with remains of 

 Hysena, now extinct in Europe. An account of these discoveries 

 was published in our Journal*, with a description of other similar 

 caves, and of the enormous quantity of fossil bones of extinct 

 animals, amongst which those of Bhinoceros were so abundant, 

 that they represented the remains of many hundreds if not thou- 

 sands of individuals. These were found in a bone-breccia forming 

 the bottom layer in the caves, as well as an enormous talus outside 

 resting on the Hippurite-limestone. 



Besides other communications on this and cognate subjects. 

 Dr. Falconer communicated to the British Association at Cam- 

 bridge an account of the Elephas Melitensis, the pigmy fossil 

 Elephant of Malta, discovered with other extinct animals by Capt. 

 Spratt in the ossiferous cave of Zebbug. 



The question of the antiquity of man had always been a sub- 

 ject of great interest to him, and the investigation of the cave- 

 deposits, evidently of very difi"erent ages, of which fact additional 

 evidence was being almost daily accumulated, was constantly 

 urging him on to fresh inquiries and new discoveries. In 1863 

 he took an active share in the perplexing discussion on the human 

 jaw, said to have been found in the gravel-deposits of Moulin 

 Quignon. Dr. Falconer was inclined to doubt its authenticity, 

 and there seems little reason to question the correctness of his 

 conclusions. 



He also took a great interest in the discovery of those remark- 

 able deposits in tlie caverns of the Dordogne, where flint imple- 

 ments and other curious remains of human art are so abundant, 

 together with remains of animals now extinct in that part of 

 France, of which those of the Reindeer are the most numerous ; 

 these have been ably investigated by Messrs. Lartet and Henry 

 Christie, but they belong undoubtedly to a much more recent 

 period. 



His last expedition was undertaken last September to visit the 

 remarkable cave-deposits recently discovered in Gibraltar. A 

 copy of the report which he made, in conjunction with Prof. Busk, 

 to the Government, has lately been forwarded to us by the Secre- 

 tary of State for War, and will, I trust, shortly be read before this 

 Society. 



His loss, I am sure, will long be most deeply felt by those 

 who were personally acquainted with his merits, and by all who 

 could appreciate profound scientific knowledge. His memory was 

 most remarkable, as was also his caution in giving an opinion. 

 The store of scientific materials which he had accumulated, and of 



* Quart. Jomni. Geol. Soc. vol. xvi. p. 99. 



