THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
439 
London (7); the new researches in Sicily are those 
of Dr. Hans Pohlig, based upon a large collection 
of bones in the Palermo Museum from the Cavern 
o f Pontale, at Carini (10). 
The bone-caves of Malta were discovered so 
long ago as the middle of the seventeenth cen- 
tury (1), and they have long been wellknown 
through the explorations and researches of the 
late Rear-Admiral Spratt (11), Professor Leith 
Adams (2-5), Dr. Hugh Falconer (8), and Dr. George 
Busk (6). They have yielded some dwarf elephants, 
described under the names of Elephas melitensis , 
E. falconer i, and E. mnaidriensis , and a dwarf 
hippopotamus (II. pentlandi). They have also 
furnished evidence of a so-called gigantic dormouse 
( Myoxus melitensis), some large land-tortoises (3,4), 
and various birds (9). Mr. Cooke’s researches, 
therefore, are for the most part only an indepen- 
dent verification of results already obtained; but, 
at the same time, he has succeeded in making one 
or two striking additions to our knowledge of the 
(1 ) Abela . — Della descrittione di Malta, 16 If!. 
(2 ) Adams, A. L —Natural History and Archaeo- 
logy of the Nile Valley and. Maltese Islands, 1870. 
( 3 ) . — On fossil Chelonians from the 
Ossiferous Caves and Fissures of Malta. Quart. 
Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. XXII, 1866. 
(I) . — On Gigantic Land-Tortoises 
and a small Fresh-water Species from the Ossife- 
rous Caverns of Malta. Ibid., vol . XXXIII, 1887. 
( 5) . — On the dentention and. Osteology 
of the Maltese Fossil Elephants , being a Descrip- 
tion of Remains discovered, by the Author in 
Malta between the years 1860 and, 1866. Trans. 
Zool. Soc. vol. IX, iS7lf. 
(6) Busk, G. — Description of the Remain - of 
three extinct Species of Elephant , collected, by 
Captain Spratt, C.B., R.N., in the Ossiferous 
Cavern of Zebbug, in the Island of Malta. Trans. 
Zool. Soc., vol. VI, 1867. 
(7) Cooke, .L H . — The liar Da, lam Cavern, 
Malta, and, its Fossiliferous Contents, with a Re- 
port on the Organic Remains, by A. S. Woodward. 
Proc. Roy. Soc., 1893. 
(8) Falconer, H .- — Palaeontological Memoirs, 
edited by Murchison. 
( 9) Parker, W, K — On some fossil Birds from 
the Zebbug Cave Malta. Trans. Zool. Soc., vol. 
VI, 1167' 
(10) Pohlig, H . — Fine Elep/iantenhbhle Sici- 
liens und der erste Nachweis des Cranicddomes 
von Elephas antiquus. Abhandl. k. bay. Akad. 
math.-phys. CL, vol. XVIII, 1.893. 
(II) Spratt, T. A. B . — On the bone-caves near 
Crendi , Zebbug, and, Melliha, in the Island of 
Malta. Quart, journ. Geol. Soc., vol. XXIII , 1867. 
extinct fauna in question. The principal specimens 
obtained have been placed in the British Museum, 
and a detailed report on these fossils by Mr. A. S. 
Woodwards is appended to Mr. Cooke’s account 
of his results. 
Attention has been chiefly confined to one ca- 
vern in the Har Dalam Gorge, near Marsa Sci- 
rocco Bay, where Spratt and Adams accomplished 
so much. It is situated 500 yards from the shore, 
and its mouth is now 40 ft. above the small stream 
which, in rainy weather, flows through the gorge. 
There is evidence everywhere of former torrential 
rains, where all in now comparatively parched; 
and Mr. Cooke considers that no other pheno- 
menon could have filled the caves and fissures 
as he find them. In most parts the Har Dalam 
Cave was filled to a height of within 2 ft. of the 
roof, and one of the principal sections of the con- 
tents showed the following succession of layers: — 
(i.) Unstratified surface debris , 6 in.; (ii.) Red 
clayey loam, 3 ft., with Hippopotamus , Cervus , 
and pottery ;(iii.) Unfossiliferous black earth, 4 in.; 
(iv.) Dark red plastic clay, 1 ft. 6 in., with Hippo- 
potamus ; (v.) Reddish clay, 1 ft. with Hippopo- 
tamus and Cervus ; (vi.) Unfossiliferous yellow 
plastic clay, 2 ft. In one place a human bone was 
found at about the base of layer iii.; and layer v. 
also yielded the first evidence of extinct carnivo- 
rous animals discovered in Malta — a portion of 
mandible with teeth of a bear, and one tooth of a 
canine quadruped as large as a wolf. 
The discovery of these carnivora in the Maltese 
caverns is of great interest, because gnawed bones 
have already been noticed; but it is probable that 
still others remain to be found, notably the lion 
and hyaena. The jaw of the bear, moreover, cannot 
be specifically determined— cannot be definitely 
assigned either to any extinct animal, to the brown 
bear, the grisly, or to those of Northern Africa; 
can only be distinguished with certainty from our 
cave bear. As for the canine, a single tooth is insuf- 
ficient to prove whether or not it belongs to a do- 
mestic dog. 
Still more interesting is the discovery of a 
great number of bones of a small deer, mostly 
identified with the diminutive race of the common 
stag met with in Northern Africa and known as 
the Barbary Deer. The Fallow Deer may also have 
been present, but there are no characteristic frag- 
