Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 33.djvu/226

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Testudo robusta.Gigantic Maltese Tortoise. Testudo Spratti.Spratt's Tortoise. Lutremys europæa(?).Speckled Tortoise. Lacerta, sp.Lizard, sp.? Batrachia, sp.Frogs or Toads, sp.

Helix aspersa. Helix vermiculata. Helix candidissima. Helix aperta. Helix Sprattii. Helix striata. Bulimus acutus. Cyclostoma, sp. Clausilia syracusana.

The stratigraphical conditions under which these animal remains were discovered varied considerably. On that account it may be inferred that all were not conveyed into the rock-cavities and hollows at the same time and under exactly the same conditions; and it is not wholly improbable that a redeposition of remains may in one or more instances have taken place. At all events, a contemporaneity may be claimed for the Elephants, Hippopotami, Myoxi, Anatidæ, Chelonia, Lacertilia, and certain Helicidæ, inasmuch as their remains were intimately associated.

I exclude the remains of Horse, Fallow deer, Deer or Goat, and a canine tooth referable to a small Canis, also the remains of the Water-rat, Frogs, and several species of land shells, on account of the following circumstances connected with their discovery:—

The exuviæ of the Horse, Fallow deer, and of a small carnivore of about the size of a Fox were found together in a rock-rent containing red soil and fragments of the parent rock. The other ruminants' teeth, also the canines of a small Vulpes, Arvicola, and Frog-bones, were met with in close proximity to the larger quadrupeds; but the deposits being composed of closely packed red soil, it may not be improbable that, in the case of the two last-named and several species of land Snails, they had made their way into the bed after its deposition. At all events, the entire absence of large Carnivora is not the least remarkable feature of the collections.

As far as yet ascertained, the mammalian and avian remains from the rock-cavities of Malta and Gibraltar belong to different faunas, the Maltese being the more ancient.