OF WESTERN EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN COASTS. 
963 
this fauna from the contemporaneous fauna of Sicily and the mainland was probably 
due to long isolation of the island during the Quaternary, and possibly the later Ter¬ 
tiary, periods. According to the last summary of Dr. Leith Adams, it consists of:— 
Elephas Mnaidra, Adams . 
,, Melitensis, Falc. . 
,, Falconeri, Busk . 
Hippopotamus Pentlandi . 
Myoxus Melitensis, Pakker 
„ Cartel, Adams 
Arvicola pratensis, Baillon 
Cygnus Falconeri, Parker 
,, Olor, Gmelin . . 
The large Elephant of Malta. 
The dwarf Elephant of Malta. 
The pigmy Eleyhant of Malta. 
The small Hippopotamus. 
The gigantic Dormouse. 
The hollow-jawed Dormouse. 
The Banh Vole. 
The great Swan. 
The mute Swan. 
With these were found bones of a large fresh-water Turtle, and the tooth of a 
Carnivorous animal. 
The Hippopotamus Pentlandi occurs in the caves of Sicily ; the Arvicola pratensis, 
a recent species, is found in caves in this country ; the Cygnus Olor is a North African 
bird, and a winter visitor to Malta. The absence, or extreme rarity, of the ordinary 
cave animals and of Buminants is another feature of the special insular character of 
this fauna. 
The land shells of the drift beds are not given, but those found in them in the 
adjacent island of Gozo are all of recent species.* 
The breccia is, as it is elsewhere, of a date immediately subsequent to the caves, 
and contains, in the few instances where it is fossiliferous, the same Mammalian 
remains. It occurs under three conditions : 1st, in the rock fissures ; 2nd, in cavities 
or hollows in the surface ; 3rd, on the slopes of the hills and under escarpments. 
As instances of the first are the Gandia and Shantiin fissures, met with in quarrying 
the calcareous sandstone near the village of Micabba. Dr. L. Adams describes them 
o 
as rents of small size, crammed to the top with red earth and angular fragments, 
from a few inches to 2 or 3 feet in circumference, of the adjacent rock, with which 
numerous bones were interspersed in the greatest confusion. He observes that “ the 
broken and splintered condition of the long bones was remarkable,” and that none of 
them showed traces of having been rolled. He also remarks that “ throughout the 
mass were strewn abundant remains of Elephant bones with the teeth entire or 
broken, together with fragments of bones of very large aquatic birds and those of the 
Dormouse, just as if numerous decayed carcasses of Elephants, large Water Birds, and 
* Mr. J. H. Cooke enumerates :— 
, Helix Pisani, Mull. Helix esoperata ? Mont. 
,, striata, Drap. „ vermiculata, Mull. 
„ virgata ^ Mont. Pomafias melitensis, Sow. 
6 (; 2 
