OF WESTERN EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN COASTS. 
965 
mass of debris has only sufficed to cover up the base of the cliff. I also take this breccia 
to be the equivalent of the breccia on the slopes of Gibraltar (the presence of 
Mammalian remains being a local condition), and of the breccia on the Mentone 
Coast, They all testify to the debris of a land surface, carried from higher to lower 
levels by a force acting vertically. 
Fig. 22.— Section showing the position of the Bone Caves and Bone Breccia on the Coast at Malah. 
a, Ossiferous Breccia. 
1, Malak Cave, -witli remains of Hippopotamus Pentldndi, and Pigmy Elephant. 
2, Melleha Cave, witli remains of Hippopotamus. 
3, Red clay on surface. 
A fact mentioned by Admiral Spratt"^ tends to confirm the opinion I expressed 
when speaking of the Sicilian coast, that, previously to the submergence, the land 
stood at a higher level than at present, for in excavating the naval docks at Valetta, 
the breccia of red eartb, with fragments of surface debris and land shells, were found 
in fissures and crevices of the rock at 20 feet and more below the present sea-level. 
Judging from the height at which the Rubble-drift is found it is probable that 
the island was wholly submerged. It is a significant, though not conclusive, fact, 
also, that not one species or even a single genus of its Quaternary Mammalia are 
now living on the island, the only indigenous quadrupeds, according to Dr. Leith 
Adams, being the Weasel, Hedgehog, and Rabbit. 
Carniola and Istria .—Some remarkable facts have been noticed in connection with 
the mines of Carniola.t The hills around Kropp, which rise to the height of several 
hundred metres above the sea level, are traversed by large fissures filled with a 
breccia, with which is associated a hydrated oxide of iron in grains from the size of 
a pea to that of a nut. This breccia contains, as usual, angular fragments and large 
blocks of the adjacent limestone rocks. The greater number of these fissures are 
unfossiliferous, but in a few the teeth and bones of Ursus spelceus have been discovered, 
and in one the tooth of a carnivorous animal was found at a depth of about 250 feet. 
Brongniart classed these fissures, some of which have been worked to the depth of 
* Op. cit., p. 296. 
t A. Brongniart, ‘ Annales des Sciences Naturelles,’ August, 1828 and 1829. 
