Evolution (Biology); Glacial epoch; Human beings -- Origin; Human evolution
No proofs seem yet to have been found of the existence of Man at the
period when the hippopotamus and Elephas antiquus flourished at San
Ciro. But there is another cave called the Grotto di Maccagnone, which
much resembles it in geological position, on the opposite or west side
of the Bay of Palermo, near Carini. In the bottom of this cave a bone
deposit like that of San Ciro occurs, and above it other materials
reaching to the roof, and evidently washed in from above, through
crevices in the limestone. In this upper and newer breccia Dr. Falconer
discovered flint knives, bone splinters, bits of charcoal, burnt clay,
and other objects indicating human intervention, mingled with entire
land shells, teeth of horses, coprolites of hyaenas, and other
bones, the whole agglutinated to one another and to the roof by the
infiltration of water holding lime in solution. The perfect condition
of the large fragile helices (Helix vermiculata) afforded satisfactory
evidence, says Dr. Falconer, that the various articles were carried
into the cave by the tranquil agency of water, and not by any tumultuous
action. At a subsequent period other geographical changes took place,
so that the cave, after it had been filled, was washed out again, or
emptied of its contents with the exception of those patches of breccia
which, being cemented together by stalactite, still adhere to the roof.*
(* "Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society" volume 16
1860 page 105.)
Baron Anca, following up these investigations, explored, in 1859,
another cave at Mondello, west of Palermo, and north of Mount Gallo,
where he discovered molars of the living African elephant, and
afterwards additional specimens of the same species in the neighbouring
grotto of Olivella. In reference to this elephant, Dr. Falconer has
reminded us that the distance between the nearest part of Sicily and
the coast of Africa, between Marsala and Cape Bon, is not more than 80
miles, and Admiral Smyth, in his Memoir on the Mediterranean, states
(page 499) that there is a subaqueous plateau, named by him Adventure
Bank, uniting Sicily to Africa by a succession of ridges which are not
more than from 40 to 50 fathoms under water.*
(* Cited by Horner, "Presidential Address to the Geological
Society" 1861 page 42.)
Sicily therefore might be re-united to Africa by movements of upheaval
not greater than those which are already known to have taken place
within the human period on the borders of the Mediterranean, of which
I shall now proceed to cite a well-authenticated example, observed in
Sardinia.
RISE OF THE BED OF THE SEA TO THE HEIGHT OF 300 FEET, IN THE HUMAN
PERIOD, IN SARDINIA.
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