68 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



winter months, has everywhere left evidences of 

 the vast amount of destruction they are capable of 

 effecting. From Comino's cliffs rock masses have 

 been torn away, and hurled seaward to incredible 

 distances, thus forming a series of sunken reefs, 

 and fastastically shaped islets, which in tempest- 

 uous weather are both the refuge of the myriads of 

 gulls and rock pigeons that have there made a 

 home and the dread of the fishermen who eke out 

 a scanty livelihood by toiling in the surrounding 

 waters. It is chiefly to the north-east wind that 

 these effects are due. This wind blows during the 

 winter time with unremitting fury for many days 

 together, and one has but to watch the huge 

 breakers that are then raised and hurled against 

 the cliff faces of the isles to realize the magnitude 

 of their power and the amount of destruction they 

 are capable of effecting. The atmosphere, too, 

 takes no mean part in these operations ; but its 

 efforts are chiefly confined to the softening down 

 of the angularities caused by the fractures and 

 displacements. 



The Maltese Islands are the only remnants now 

 left of the land barrier that once stretched across 

 the Mediterranean and connected Italy with Tunis. 

 A comparative study of the fauna and flora of 

 southern Europe and of northern Africa first 

 suggested to Heer the connection that formerly 

 existed between the two continents at this point ; 

 and his conclusions were afterwards borne out 

 by the interesting evidences that have been 

 forthcoming from the breccias and bone-caves of 

 Sicily and Malta. Prof. Gervais ( J ) pointed out the 

 similarity that existed between the genera and 

 species of the living Insectivora in the north of 

 Africa and those in southern Europe ; and Prof. 

 Dawson ( 2 ) observed that the porcupine of Algeria 

 presents no distinctive characters of sufficient im- 

 portance to justify it being regarded as a different 

 species to the European one. The tailed batra- 

 chians that are now found on either side of the 

 Mediterranean and the persistency with which the 

 birds of this region follow year after year the same 

 line of migration also offer themselves as further 

 evidence of the land passage that once existed 

 here. The inferences to be drawn from the above 

 facts have been corroborated by the work of the 

 Admiralty Survey in the Mediterranean. 



Between Sicily and Malta there are two banks, 

 and their elevation to a height of but forty fathoms 

 would again create a passage of dry land between 

 the two islands. Between Malta and the African 

 coast the soundings show a depth of 344 fathoms, 

 and an elevation to this extent would form a broad 

 isthmus between the two continents of which Malta 

 would be the centre. That such an elevation of 



(i) Gervais: "Anlmaux Vcrtebrus Vivants ct Fossiles," 

 p. 48. 

 ( 2 ) Dawson : " Cave Hunting," p. 380. 



this part of the Mediterranean region occurred in 

 time past is shown by the moraines and other 

 evidences of glacial action that are now to be seen 

 among the mountains of Lebanon, Anatolia^ 1 ), and 

 of the Atlas. Alluding to these phenomena, 

 Dawson ( 4 ) computes the elevation to have been 

 between 6,000 feet and 7,000 feet, while Professors 

 Ramsay and Geikie ( 5 ) consider an upheaval of 

 from 1,500 feet to 2,000 feet to have been sufficient 

 to have effected the same results. 



The palaeontology of the Pleistocene beds of 

 Malta and of the neighbouring land areas offer 

 interesting evidences on the question. The caves 

 of Italy, Sicily and Malta abound with fossil 

 mammals of a purely African type. The remains 

 of Elephas africanus have been found in quantities 

 in the caves of Syracuse, of Palermo, and of San 

 Teodoro, and intermingled with them were the 

 bones of two species of African hippopotami ( B ). 

 The presence also of the bones and teeth of 

 Elephas antiquus, and of Ursus ferox, a bear whose 

 remains occur in abundance in the caves of 

 Gibraltar, Provence, Mentone and Sicily, afford 

 evidences of this elevation and indicate a connection 

 between Sicily and Europe prior to the formation 

 of the Straits of Messina. The Maltese- Sicilian 

 isthmus that connected the two continents afforded 

 the means for migration to animals and plants 

 alike. Further, as the remains of animals of a 

 distinctly African type are at the present day 

 to be found in Europe, so are the remains of 

 European types to be found in Africa. M. Bayle(') 

 described a stratum of clay, which he found at 

 Mansourah, in Algeria, and with the assistance 

 of Prof. Gervais, it was shown that the remains 

 found in it included the molars and bones of 

 Elephas meridionalis, an elephant which in Pleis- 

 tocene times had its headquarters in northern 

 Italy, but which had roamed as far south as Algiers, 

 by way of Malta. 



The bone breccias and caves of Malta have 

 added very largely to our knowledge of the nature 

 of these physical changes. The cliffs that encircle 

 the islands' plateaux, and the mural escarpments 

 of the gorges are honeycombed with caverns and 

 fissures, many of which have yielded a rich and 

 varied collection of the remains of extinct Pleis- 

 tocene birds, reptiles and mammals. From the 

 gorge-caverns, and from the breccias that fringe the 

 south-eastern shorelines of Malta, the late Admiral 

 Spratt and the late Prof. Leith Adams obtained 

 the remains of three distinct species of elephants, 

 Elephas mnaidra, E. melitensis and E. falconeri. The 

 last was, when full grown, not larger than a donkey. 



( :1 ) " Nature," vol. v. p 444 ; vol. vi. p. 536. 

 (>) Dawson : "Cave Hunting," p. 380. 



( 5 ) Ramsey, A. C. and Geikie, J.: "The Geology of Gib- 

 raltar, " Quart. Jonrn. Geol. Soc, vol. xxxiv. p. 537. 

 («) Falconer: " Palaeontological Memoirs," vol. ii. p. 543. 

 ') Bui. Soc. Geol. Fr., 2d ser. tome xi. p. 204. 



