954 PROFESSOR J. PRESTWICH ON THE EVIDENCES OF A SUBMERGENCE 
in Tuscany. Near Pisa, a red breccia, not distinguishable from that of Gibraltar, lies in 
vertical fissures of a light coloured limestone. It contains, like the other, remains of 
Carnivora, Puminants (especially Deer), with species of Helix and Cyclostoma elegans. 
In the south of Italy, ossiferous breccias, with remains of various Puminants, occur in 
fissures of the limestone at CajDe Palinura. 
Professor Capellini gives a more special account of a bone-breccia discovered a 
few years since near Spezzia.'^" On either side of the bay are promontories of Jurassic 
limestone. The headland of the one on the south side forms, as at Nice, an almost 
isolated hill. In the course of constructing a fort on this point, a fissure or cavity in 
the rock was met with at a height of 246 feet (75 metres) above the level of the sea. 
It was filled with a red ferruginous breccia, cemented by calcite, in which were a 
great number of bones belonging to Higopopotamus amgohibius [H. major), and Cervus 
capreolus, chiefly the former. A great number of the bones were however dispersed 
and lost before the attention of Professor Capellini was directed to the spot. The 
discovery is interesting, as it points to the existence of a fauna similar to that on the 
Sicilian coast. 
Sicily. —On the Atlantic coast, where the successive changes of level have been 
due to earth movements extending over wide areas, there has been little to interfere 
with the comparative uniformity in the level of the beaches. But in the Mediter¬ 
ranean area volcanic action has introduced a disturbing element, which no longer 
allows of uniformity of level being accepted as contributory evidence of contemporaneity 
of upheaval; and where we have no other evidence, altitude alone cannot be taken as 
a proof of age. This renders the age of some of the beaches in Sardinia and Corsica 
uncertain. 
In Sicily there is, in fact, proof of considerable uplifts in recent times. Accordiug 
to Signor Gemmelae.o,+ there are on tlie coast of Catania several zones of sea-levels 
on lava-streams of known date. In one case, the lava-stream of the year 1169 has 
“ adhering to it a coarse shelly sand, in which may be distinguished, almost in a normal 
position, Cyprwa lucicla” and other shells, at a height of 6 to 7 feet above the sea- 
level. At another spot he found blocks of lava encrusted by Serpulce, at a height 
of 45 feet.| This he considered to be the greatest elevation the coast had undergone 
during the present period. 
Of bone caves there is one with traces of a Paised Beach 70 feet above sea-level, 
two miles north of Syracuse. The cave contained remains of Elephant, Hippo¬ 
potamus, &c. A bone breccia, which Dr. Christie classed with that of San Giro, 
extended from the entrance to some distance at the base of the cliff 
* “Breccia Ossifera della Caverna di S. Teresa,” ‘Mem. dell’ Accad. di Scienze dell. 1st, di Bologna,’ 
ser. 3, vol. 10, 1879. 
t ‘ Quart. Jonrn. Geol. Soc.,’ vol. 14, p. 504. 
t The age of the lava at this spot is not mentioned, 
