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MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
appears to us that the formation and maintenance of a local museum at 
Gibraltar, illustrative of its products and relics, ought not to fall upon the 
garrison, who are only temporary residents, and that it is more properly an 
Imperial obligation. The least expensive and best mode of carrying the 
object into effect, would probably be to have a room in the library reserved 
for the purpose and under the management of the Library Committee. The 
only outlay would be in the construction of the apartment and in the glass 
cases for the objects. No establishment would be required. 
12. In case of any proposal of this nature being entertained, we would 
venture to suggest to your Excellency that the collection should be strictly 
limited to objects of local interest, having reference to the rock, the bay, 
the straits and the immediate vicinity. Everything from beyond these 
limits should be excluded. A museum of reference of this nature should 
include: 
A Herbarium collection of the plants yielded by the Eock. 
A Zoological collection of all objects, terrestrial and marine, produced 
within the limits. 
A collection of specimens and minerals of the Eock. 
A complete collection of the fossil remains yielded by the ossiferous caves 
and bone breccia of Gibraltar. 
An Archeological collection of coins, pottery and other antique relics 
occurring within the circuit of the bay. 
13. In illustration of the absolute need there is of a local collection of 
the kind here indicated, we may mention that, being anxious to fix the age 
of the pottery yielded in such abundance by the Windmill Hill cave, no 
similar materials for comparison derived from the ancient ruins of Carteia, or 
from points in the Mediterranean resorted to by the Phoenicians, were to be 
found in the British Museum. The proofs of the antiquity of the human 
race is one of the leading questions that occupy the attention of educated 
and scientific men at the present day. That human remains and other 
objects bearing upon it are considered of high value, is sufficiently proved 
by the fact that a grant of £1000 was passed for the purchase of a collection 
of this kind from the valley of the Yerere,in the south of Prance, during the 
last session of Parliament, for the British Museum. One of the human 
skulls yielded by the rock appears to us to point to a still higher antiquity. 
In fact, it is the most remarkable and perfect example of the kind now 
extant. In the absence of a properly organized museum, no record exists 
of the precise circumstances under which it was found; and that it has been 
preserved at all may be considered a happy accident. It has cost us much 
labour, and with but partial success, to endeavour to trace its history on the 
spot where it turned up. 
14. Our time has been so fully occupied by the examination of the Cave 
collections and collateral subjects, that we have only been able to make a 
cursory examination of the geology of the rock. We entirely agree with 
the opinions expressed in the excellent memoir by Mr James Smith, of 
Jordan Hill, that it bears unmistakable evidence of having undergone extra¬ 
ordinary disturbances, both of upheaval and depression, during the quatenary 
