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MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
and to pass over minor incidents well known to your Excellency—the objects 
discovered were forwarded to us in London for identification and scientific 
examination. 
3. Having devoted several months to the study of the cave collections 
successively transmitted to us, which were so carefully classified by means 
of distinctive marks by Captain Brome, the governor of the military prison, 
as to place the main facts clearly before us, we were so strongly impressed 
with their importance that we determined, on your Excellency's invitation, 
to visit Gibraltar, and examine the general conditions of the cave, on the 
spot. Eor the discoveries in the Windmill Hill cave have not only yielded 
unexpected results regarding the former state and ancient animal population 
of the Bock itself, but they further point to a land connexion between the 
Southern part of the Iberian peninsula and the African continent at no very 
remote geological epoch. 
4. Captain Brome's report dated the 21st August, 1863, with the plan 
and section which accompany it, so clearly explains the nature of the 
Windmill Hill cave, that it is unnecessary for us to enter on the present 
occasion into any detailed description of it. The rock abounds in caves 
which are of two classes: 1st, seaboard caves, at various heights above the 
level of the sea, and horizontally excavated on the ancient cliffs by the waves. 
2nd, inland caves, descending from the surface, and in connexion with great 
vertical fissures, by which the mass of the rock has been rent at remote 
epochs during disturbances caused by violent acts of upheavement. Like 
the well known cavern of St Michael's, the “ Genista" cave of Windmill 
Hill belongs to the second class. It forms part of a great perpendicular 
fissure which, by the vigorous measures adopted by Captain Brome, has 
either been excavated or traced downwards to a depth of upwards of 200 ft. 
below the level of the plateau of Windmill Hill. It was full of the fossil 
remains of quadrupeds and birds, of the former of which some are now wholly 
extinct; others extinct in Europe, and repelled to distant regions of the 
African continent; others either now living on the rock or in the adjoining 
Spanish peninsula. The following is a list of the species which we have at 
present identified:— 
Pachydermata. 
Rhinoceros, Etruscus (?), Extinct. 
Rhinoceros, LeptorMnus Equus MegarTiinus , extinct, abundant. 
Equus,-, young animals only—species undetermined. 
Sus, Prisca (?), extinct. 
Sus, Scrofa , living. 
Ruminants. 
Cervus, Elaphus var. Barhams , Fossil remains abundant. 
Cervus, Dama , or a nearly allied form: abundant. 
Bos,-a large form equalling the Aurochs in size, remains few and 
imperfect—species undetermined. 
Bos, Taurus , abundant in the upper chamber. 
Capra, Eircus, abundant in the upper chamber. 
C. iEgoceros, form A. 1 Two forms of Ibex, probably extinct, in vast 
C. iEgoc. form B, ) abundance throughout the fissures. 
