Page:Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A - Volume 184.djvu/1071

Hippopotamus; amongst them were 300 astragali of that animal. Scinà also collected 76 astragali for the Museum of Palermo, together with 14 jaws with teeth, besides numerous single teeth,^[1] and specimens of almost all the bones of the body belonging to animals of all ages down to the fætus. The following diagram section (fig. 19) gives the chief features, as described by the above writers. It is not drawn to any scale.

Fig. 19.—Restored diagram section of the Cave of San Ciro (J.P.).

1. Hippurite limestone. 2. Pliocene sands and marls.

$a^{\prime }$. Bone breccia $\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right.}$ Red clay, with angular blocks of limestone, passing down into reddish clay, with smaller fragments and some pebbles of limestone and quartz. (The latter may be derived from the sea-bed,)$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$ 20 feet?

$c$. Sand, with sea-shells and corals (?) of recent species. The walls to some height above $c$ were perforated by Lithodomi^[2] . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 to 2 ,,

With respect to the position and condition of the bones, the evidence is conflicting. Scinà says that the bones were without order, and those of the different animals were mixed together, that they were broken, shattered, and dispersed in fragments. Speaking of the Elephant remains, he remarks that no entire tusks were found, and that the fangs of the teeth and epiphyses of the vertebras were gone, whilst some of the bones were so reduced by wear as to be scarcely recognisable. Two teeth of

1. These were still so numerous on the surface of the ground between the cave and the church of San Ciro, at the time of Dr. Falconer's visit, that the women and children of the neighbourhood picked up the teeth and brought them to him in handfuls. Whether these were ploughed up, or had been rejected at the time of the diggings, is, however, uncertain. They were not worn.
2. It is possible that there may have been a distinct bone-breccia of the cave age between $c$ and $a^{\prime }$.