968 PROFESSOR J. PRESTWICH ON THE EVIDENCES OF A SUBMERGENCE 
forms taluses on the old coast lines.and seems to be contemporary with the 
osseous breccia with which it becomes confounded.” It is quite distinct from the 
detritus carried down by the present streams which, though large in quantity, is not 
spread out in sheets, but forms cones of dejection at the mouths of the valleys. 
This old angular drift, which is often cemented by calcareous infiltration into a hard, 
rocky mass, forms taluses or banks 40 to 50 metres high against the escarpments of 
Dolomite at the foot of Mount Taygetus, and is also found at the foot of the escarped 
shores of the lakes and of the sea-cliffs. The authors state that this drift is 
prolonged into historic times, with precisely the same characters, but this means I 
presume, no more than that the more recent deposits formed by the wear and erosion 
of the older drift, retains very much of the same character and aspect. The 
limestone hills are covered up to their highest summits with a red earth, due to the 
decomposition of the rock by atmospheric agencies. It is from this that the matrix 
of this deposit and of the osseous breccias, and which fills certain caves, is derived. 
Though it is stated in one place that the breccia forms a slope at the foot of the 
hills inclined at an angle approaching 45°, which might lead to the inference that it 
was a sub-aerial talus, this statement does not agree with what the authors say about 
its extending into the plains, nor with the sections they give, which represent the 
breccia with slight and variable slopes (Plate 2, fig. 2 ; Plate 3, fig. 4; Plate 6, 
figs 4, 5 ; Plate 7, fig. 2), while it attains in some places in the valleys a thickness 
of from 50 to 60 feet or more. They also tell us that in some places “the breccia 
has been nearly denuded away, and all that remains in proof of its existence, is the 
osseous breccia which fills the fissures of the rock, and has acquired great solidity.” 
This drift also blocks the entrance of some bone caves. 
No particulars are given of the organic remains. It is merely stated that in this 
respect they resemble all the others on the coast of the Mediterranean, and that not 
only is there an absence of marine remains, but that land shells {Helix algira) occm' 
in the breccia. 
A few miles off the south coast of Greece is the island of Cerigo, which at an early 
date attracted attention in consequence of the reported occurrence of human remains 
in the ossifeimus breccia filling fissures on the summit of a flat-topped hill near the 
sea. Amongst these were a jaw and part of a skull. Cuvier discredited the report, 
but without seeing the specimens, and the discovery was not followed up. Nor 
were any particulars given of the animal remains. A breccia is said also to lie on the 
slopes of the hills, while the ossiferous fissures are situated on an isolated hill, where, 
as at Cette and other places, the animals were likely to have sought refuge from the 
rising waters. 
This Old alluvium of the Morea is identical in many of its features with the Rubble- 
drift of the South of England. There is (1) the same derivation of the detritus from 
local rocks; (2) the same angularity of the fragments ; (3) the same general absence 
* This red colour of the ground is common in all the western Mediterranean area. 
