284 PBOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [May 22, 



were transferred at Dr. Falconer's decease. The bones of birds have 

 been described by Mr. W. K. Parker, F.E.S. &c.* 



II. The Maghlak Eone-caye. 



The first of these bone-eaves was discovered in the summer of 

 1858, on the south coast of Malta, near the town of Crendi. That 

 part of the coast, for a distance of about six miles on either side of 

 the cavern, presents a line of almost precipitous cliffs or bold scarps, 

 extending from Marsa Scirrocco Bay, at the south-eastern extremity 

 of Malta, to the small bay Foum el Eieh, at the north-western extre- 

 mity and the base of the Bengemma heights or plateau. 



These bold features terminate above in two distinct plateaux of 

 nearly equal extent — the eastern plateau averaging a height of from 

 300 to 350 feet above the sea, and the western averaging about 800 

 feet and forming the summits of the before-named Bengemma heights. 



The strata constituting these two plateaux lie nearly horizontal, 

 there being a slight dip to the eastward throughout ; and the origin 

 of the plateaux is plainly due to the upper series of rather soft strata 

 that rise up into the upper or western plateau having been en- 

 tirely swept off from the lower and harder strata of calcareous 

 sandstones and compact limestone by an encroachment of the sea, 

 when it must have long remained about that level. 



It was therefore the exposure of the harder stratum of limestone 

 constituting the lowest of the series on the coast, near the village 

 and well-known Phoenician ruin of Crendi, that led to the opening 

 of a quarry there in 1858 for a durable stone suitable for the con- 

 struction of the new naval dock, and, in the autumn of the same year, 

 to the unexpected discovery of a bone- cave containing remains of 

 the Hippopotamus and other animals. I therefore adopted the name 

 of Crendi to distinguish the locality of the bone-cave and quarry, 

 in my brief notice of the discovery laid before the Geological Society 

 in 1859. 



The late Mr. Horner, in his Presidential Address to the Society 

 in 1861, consequently adopted the name of Crendi also for this quarry 

 and cavern in his notice of the interesting discovery. 



As Dr. Leith Adams, P.G.S., who arrived in Malta about two years 

 subsequent to the first discovery of the cave, and whose more recent 

 labours amongst its debris enabled him to procure similar remains, 

 and to learn the history of the cavern both from the quarrymen and 

 myself, adopted the local name of Maghlak, in a notice which he 

 published respecting the cavern and its rehcs, in the Hoyal Dublin 

 Society's Journal f and in his Report to the British Association:]:, 

 geologists have in consequence a somewhat confused familiarity with 

 both names ; it is therefore necessary for me to point out that they 

 both apply to the same quarry and cavern. 



At about the same level as the Crendi or Maghlak cavern, the 

 crest cliffe overlooking the sea on both sides have indications of the 



* Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. vi. p. 119. 



t Vol. iv. p. 11. 



I British Association Eeport, 1865, p. 259. 



