The bone-caves of Malta were first scientifically explored by Admiral Spratt, in 1858, and subsequently by Dr. Leith Adams, and others. The Maghlak Cave near the town of Crendi, contained large quantities of the Hippopotamus Pentlandi, together with the gigantic dormouse, named Myoxus Melitensis. A short distance off a second cavern, explored by Dr. Leith Adams, contained numerous remains of at least two species of pigmy elephant about the height of a small horse. Its small size may be gathered from the accompanying woodcut ([Fig. 128]) of the last lower true molar, taken from the lithograph published in Dr. Falconer’s “Palæontographical Memoirs,” vol. ii. pl. xii.
Fig. 128.—Molar of Elephas Melitensis, Malta (2/3). (Falconer.)
Range of Pigmy Hippopotamus.
The pigmy hippopotamus has lived also in other districts in the Mediterranean region. One of its teeth, now preserved in the British Museum, was discovered by Dr. Leith Adams, in Candia. In 1872 I identified in the Oxford Museum a last lower true molar, which extends the range of this species to the mainland of Europe. It was obtained by Dr. Rolleston from a Greek tomb at Megalopolis, in the Peloponese, and was probably derived from one of the many caves in the limestone of that district. For this extinct animal to have spread from Sicily to Malta, from Malta to Candia, and from Candia to the Peloponese, or vice versâ, these three islands must have been united to the Peloponese and have been the higher grounds of land, now submerged beneath the waves of the Mediterranean.
The view therefore, advanced by Dr. Falconer and Admiral Spratt, that Europe was connected with Africa by a bridge of land, extending northwards from Sicily, is fully borne out by an examination of the fossil remains both of that island and of Malta (see [Fig. 129]).[252]
Fossil Mammalia in Algeria.
If the African mainland extended to Europe in the direction of the Straits of Gibraltar, and of Malta and Sicily, so as to afford passage for the African mammalia into Europe, it would equally afford passage for the southern advance into Africa of some of the European mammalia. Evidence of this we meet with in a stratum of clay at Mansourah, near Constantine, in Algeria, described by M. Bayle in 1854.[253] The animals which he obtained, consisting of the ox, antelope, hippopotamus, and elephant, have been described by Prof. Gervais. An examination of his figure of a fragment of a molar tooth leaves no room for doubt, that the Elephas meridionalis was living in north Africa during the pleistocene age; that is to say an extinct animal, the head-quarters of which are to be found in Italy, ranged as far south as northern Africa.
Living Species common to Europe and Africa.
The former continuity of Africa by way of the Iberian peninsula and Sicily, may also be inferred by the distribution of the mammalia at the present time. Prof. Gervais[254] observes that most of the insectivora are the same in Europe and north Africa. The genette and ferret (Fœtorius furo), the Mangousta Widdringtoni (Gray), and the fallow deer, are common to Spain and Africa. The porcupine of Algeria belongs to the same species as that of Italy and Sicily, and the wild boar does not present any characters of importance by which it can be separated from that of Europe. From the present range, therefore, of the mammalia the same conclusion may be drawn as to the continuity of Africa with Europe as is afforded by their distribution in the pleistocene age.