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MINUTES OF PEOCEEDINGS OE 
species which we have ascertained to be fflejphas antiquus discovered in a 
sea-beach on Europa Point. That the hysenas were dwellers upon the rock 
is also established by the fact that in addition to numerous bones we have 
detected a considerable quantity of Coprolites of Hycena brunnea among the 
“ Genista 99 cave relics. Some of the species must have peopled the rock 
in vast numbers. We infer upon a rough estimate that we have passed 
through our hands bones derived from at least two or three hundred individuals 
of Ibex, swept into the Windmill Hill fissure. In no instance have we 
observed fossil bones attributable to one complete skeleton of any of the 
larger mammalia. 
7. That the rock now so denuded of arboreal vegetation was then 
partially clothed with trees and shrubs as the corresponding limestone 
mountains on the opposite side of the Straits are at present, is so legitimate 
an inference as hardly to be open to rational doubt. It is now a pinch to 
find sufficient food, at the end of the hot season, for the flocks of goats which 
are reared on the promontory; while it is a matter of absolute difficulty to 
find fodder at all for the few cows that are kept by some of the officers of 
the garrison. When elephants, rhinoceros, wild oxen, horse, boars, 
deer, &c., either peopled or resorted to the rock in considerable numbers, 
there must have been abundant trees, and more or less of constant green 
food for them. Bare exposed masses of rock get intensely heated by a 
southern sun; they repel moisture by being thus heated, and raise the mean 
temperature of the locality by radiation. While on the contrary a clothing 
of trees and fruticose vegetation both tempers the heat, attracts moisture, 
and greatly increases the fall of rain. We are aware that your Excellency's 
attention has been directed to planting operations on the rock. Numerous 
and repeated failures must be looked for at the commencement; but the 
facts above mentioned would indicate that success may ultimately be attained 
with much benefit to the station. 
8. The next prominent point in the cave is the character of the extinct 
Eauna of Gibraltar regarded as a group. Of the prevailing fossil forms 
which occur in England, Germany and France, as far south as the northern 
slope of the Pyrenees and the shores of the Mediterranean, such as the 
mammoth. Rhinoceros tichorldnus, Ursus spelmus, Hyeena spelcea, not a 
vestige has been detected among the fossil remains of Gibraltar. In the 
latter the carnivora are the most significant. The three species of Felis are 
of African affinities, and Hyaena brunnea , now for the first time ascertained 
to have existed formerly in Europe, is at the present day chiefly found near 
the Cape of Good Hope and Natal. Remains of the existing African 
elephant have been discovered in the neighbourhood of Madrid, by Don 
Cascano de Prado. That either of these wild animals could have crossed the 
Straits from Barbary to Europe is contrary to all probability. The obvious 
inference is that there was a connexion by land either circuitous or direct 
between the two continents at no very remote period, somewhere within the 
Mediterranean area. To arrive at any further evidence bearing upon this 
very important question, from the rock of Gibraltar becomes an object of 
the highest general and scientific interest. 
