The African elephant was obtained from three caves: from that of San Teodoro, by Baron Anca; from Grotta Santa, near Syracuse, by the Canon Alessi; and from a cave near Palermo, by M. Charles Gaudin. It is obvious that the presence of this animal, as well as of the spotted hyæna, in Sicily can only be accounted for on the hypothesis that a bridge of land formerly existed, by which they could pass from their head-quarters, that is to say Africa. On the other hand the presence of the grizzly bear, and of the _Elephas antiquus_ implies that they passed over into Sicily, from their European headquarters, before the existence of the Straits of Messina, since both animals are abundant on the mainland of Europe. The larger species of hippopotamus, doubtfully referred by Dr. Falconer to the _H. major_ (= _H. amphibius_), may have crossed over either from Italy, where its remains are very abundant in the pleiocene and pleistocene strata, or from Africa. [Illustration: FIG. 127.--Molar of _Hippopotamus Pentlandi_ (1/1). (Sicily.)] A small species of hippopotamus, _H. Pentlandi_, Fig. 127, occurs in incredible abundance in the Sicilian caves. It bears the same relation, in point of size, to the fossil variety of the African hippopotamus, as the living _H. liberiensis_ does to the latter. _Bone-caves of Malta._ 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. [Illustration: 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.