90 
THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
and bones of an elephant, E. meridi mails, which 
in the pleistocene age had its headquarters in i 
Northern Italy, but which had roamed as far 
south as Northern Africa by means of this land 
connection, via Malta. (1) 
To this mass of evidence the Pleistocene Beds 
of Malta, have likewise furnished their quota of 
proofs. 
The river detritus, and conglomerate that are to 
be found in the caves and fissures of the islands 
abound with the remains of at least three distinct 
species of elephants, with those of a hippopotamus, 
of a giant swan, of a giant dormouse, and of other 
animals. Of the elephants, two were of a species j 
that attained a size that barely exceeded that of a j 
Newf jundlxnd dog. Both have laso been found 
ni abundance in a fossil state in the caves near Pa- 
lermo by Baron Anca; and their molars were 
pronounced by Dr. Falconer to be identical with 
those of E. africanus. 
In the Malak and the Mellaha caverns of Malta 
Dr. L. Adams found also the bones and molars 
of pigmy hippopotami. II. pentlandi , the 
geographical range of which has been shown 
to have extended all over southern Europe as far I 
east as the Peloponese. In the caves of Palermo 
its bones were found in such quantities that, a 
few years ago, they were exported by the ship-load 
from the country for the purpose of making 
lamp-black. (2). 
The presence of these animals in the Maltese 
Islands, in northern Africa, and in southern 
Europe, can only be explained on the supposition 
that the Maltese Islands once formed a part of a 
land mass of considerable area: and that, that land 
mass must have been in direct communication 
both- with Europe and Africa. 
Of the climate, and other physical conditions of 
this epoch, we know but little. The opinions that 
are held by geologists, are conflicting; and consi- 
derable difficulty is therefore experienced when 
attempting to draw definite conclusions from the 
facts that have, up to the present, been collected, 
and from the arguments that they have adduced 
in explanation of them. Some of the facts, how- 
(1) “ Bull Soc Geol. Ft .” 2 ser., I XL , p. SOL 
( 2) For a detailed account of the specific cha- 
racters of these extinct animals see Ad ants work , 
and Falconers “ Paleontological Memoirs. 
ever, speak for themselves; and if carefully consi- 
dered, they enable us to obtain an approximate 
idea of the nature of the conditions that prevailed 
in past ages. 
Let us wander forth into the wilds of primaeval 
Malta, and judge for ourselves of the mutations 
that occurred during the enormous tracts of 
time, that have intervene 1 between this and then. 
(To be continued.) 
Science Gossip. 
The current number of ‘'Nature Notes ’, the 
Selbornian magazine contains an interesting and 
practical article on ‘'Home Museums” which is 
well worthy of attention. 
The principal electric lamp, that is being used 
at the London Naval Exhibition, was made by an 
Italian, Sig Amirante. It gives a light, the inten- 
sity of which is equal to that of five million 
candles. 
A most interesting series of articles on the “Per- 
sistence of the cranial form in the province of 
Aquila, from Neolithic to Modern times” are now 
appearing in the current issues of “La Bivista 
Italiana di Scienze Naturali. " 
M essrs Sampson Low & Marston have just 
published the work entitled “The South Italian 
Volcanoes” by Dr. Johnston-Lavis, M.D.,M.R.C.S., 
&e. which was announced in our columns two 
months ago. We hope, in a future number, to be 
able to give our readers a short resume of its chief 
features. 
The influence of food upon the rate of formation 
of carbonic acid says the “Scientific American” has 
been made a matter of special study in France; 
and it has been found out that during the first 
hour after a meal, the quantity of C02 exhaled 
increases till it reaches a maximum three or four 
hours after the meal, when it falls off again. 
Plenty of fresh air is desirable from one to three 
hours after a meal. 
In an essay on “Dragon-flies v. Mosquitoes’- 
which gained the first prize in an open competi 
tion for the best methods of destroying the mos- 
