Changes of Level in the Mediterranean area in Meiocene and Pleiocene Ages.—Bone-caves of Southern Europe.—Of Gibraltar.—Of Provence and Mentone.—Of Sicily.—Of Malta.—Range of Pigmy Hippopotamus.—Fossil Mammalia in Algeria.—Living Species common to Europe and Africa.—Evidence of Soundings.—The Glaciers of Lebanon.—Of Anatolia.—Of Atlas.—Glaciers probably produced by elevation above the Sea.—Mediterranean Coast-line comparatively modern.
In the preceding chapter we have seen that north-western Europe was elevated, during the pleistocene age, to an extent of at least 600 feet above its present level; so that Ireland was united to Britain, and Britain was joined to the mainland of Europe, proof of this elevation being dependent upon the soundings on one hand, and the distribution of the fossil mammalia on the other. Such a change must necessarily have affected the whole physical conditions of the area, since the substitution of a mass of land for a stretch of sea, and the higher altitude of the land, would tend to produce climatal extremes of considerable severity. It is indeed no wonder that during this time of continental elevation, the hills of369 Wales, Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Cumbria, and Scotland should be crowned with glaciers, or that there should have been a migration to and fro of animals, comparable to that which is now going on in Siberia and the northern portions of North America. The condition of southern Europe at that time has a most important bearing on any conclusion which may be drawn as to the pleistocene climate in France, Germany, or Britain. For if it be proved that the Mediterranean Sea was then smaller than it is now, the greater land-surface would increase both the heat of the summer and the cold of the winter in central and north-western Europe.
Changes of Level in Mediterranean area in Meiocene and Pleiocene Ages.
The geological evidence that the Mediterranean region has been subjected to oscillations of level during the tertiary period, is clear and decisive. Prof. Gaudry241 has proved, in his work on the fossil remains found at Pikermi, that the plains of Marathon, now so restricted, must have extended in the meiocene age far south into the Mediterranean, so as to afford pasture to the enormous troops of hipparions and herds of antelopes, the mastodons and large edentata, revealed by his enterprise. The rocky area of Attica, as now constituted, could not have supported such a large and varied group of animals, nor could the broken hills and limestone plateaux have been inhabited by hipparions and antelopes, if their habits at all resembled those of their descendants living at the present time. It may, therefore, reasonably be concluded370 that Greece, in those times, was prolonged southwards, and united to the islands of the Archipelago by a stretch of land. If Africa were then as now the head-quarters of the antelopes, it is very probable that one of the lines by which they passed over into Europe, and spread over France and Germany, was in this direction. Nevertheless, it must be admitted that the changes of level, which have taken place since the meiocene age in those regions, are so complicated as to render it almost impossible to restore the meiocene geography.
In the succeeding, or the pleiocene age, the presence of the African hippopotamus in Italy, France, and Germany, can only be accounted for by a more direct connection with the African mainland than is offered by a route through Asia Minor. It would seem, therefore, that the Mediterranean Sea could not then have formed the same barrier to the northern migration of the animals which it does now. In many regions, however, the present land was then sunk beneath the sea, and marine strata, of pleiocene age, were accumulated in the Val d’Arno, Sicily, and southern France.
The physical geography242 of the Mediterranean in the pleistocene age may be ascertained with considerable accuracy by the distribution of the animals, coupled with the evidence of the soundings.
Bone-caves of Southern Europe.
The mammalia in the bone-caves of southern Europe differ from those of the region north of the Alps and Pyrenees in the absence of the arctic species, and the371 presence of some which are of a more strictly southern type. Nevertheless, the influence of the mountains in lowering the temperature in their neighbourhood is to be traced in the presence of the remains of certain animals. Thus, in the caves of Gibraltar we find an ibex, which cannot be distinguished from those of the Spanish sierras, and in Mentone and Provence, a marmot, specifically identical with that of the Alps.
The bone-caves in the neighbourhood of the Mediterranean afford most important testimony as to the geographical changes which have taken place, since the animals found in them lived in that region. We will take those of the Iberian peninsula first.
Caves of Gibraltar.
Ossiferous caverns have long been known to occur in the fortified rock of Gibraltar,243 but were not examined scientifically until the year 1863, when the researches of Captain Brome, Prof. Busk, and Dr. Falconer, proved that pleistocene species were buried in considerable numbers in its cavities and fissures. Of these the most important is the great perpendicular fissure in Windmill Hill, called the Genista cave, which has been traced down to more than a depth of 200 feet. From the upper portion were obtained the polished stone implements, human skulls, and other neolithic remains described in the sixth chapter, p. 204, which prove that Gibraltar was inhabited by the Basques in the neolithic age, while the remains from the lower revealed the presence of a singularly mixed group of animals.
372 The fossil bones have been referred by Prof. Busk and Dr. Falconer to the following species:—
Lepus cuniculus, rabbit.
Felis leo, lion.
F. pardus, panther.
F. caffer.
F. pardina, lynx.
F. serval, serval.
Ursus ferox, grizzly bear.
Canis lupus, wolf.
Equus caballus, horse.
Rhinoceros hemit?chus.
Capra ibex, ibex.
Sus scrofa, wild-boar.
Cervus elaphus, red deer.
C. capreolus, roe.
C. dama, fallow deer.
The spotted hy?na, the serval, and Felis caffer, are species now peculiar to Africa, and it is obvious that they could not have found their way into Gibraltar under the present physical conditions of the Mediterranean. Elephants and rhinoceroses could not have lived on so barren and treeless a rock, unless it had overlooked a fertile plain, nor would the carnivora have chosen it for their dens, had it then been cut off from the feeding-grounds of the herbivores. Their presence, therefore, as Dr. Falconer justly remarks, implies the existence of land now sunk beneath the waves, but then extending southwards to join Africa.
To the African animals, mentioned above as inhabiting the Iberian peninsula in the pleistocene age, M. Lartet has added the African elephant (E. Africanus) and the striped hy?na (II. striata), which have been found in a stratum of gravel near Madrid along with flint implements.244 None of the purely arctic mammalia, such as the reindeer, musk sheep, or woolly rhinoceros, so abundant in France, Germany, and Britain, have been met with south of the Pyrenees.
373
Bone-caves of Provence and Mentone.
The arctic animals are also absent from the numerous bone-caves and bone breccias of Provence and Mentone. The pleistocene fauna of Provence consists, according to M. Marion,245 of the spotted hy?na, and lion, Elephas antiquus or straight-tusked elephant, Rhinoceros hemit?chus, wild-boar, urus, stag, horse, and rabbit. The breccias in the island of Ratonneau have also furnished the porcupine, brown bear, and tailless hare. Man is proved to have been living in the district at the time by the discovery of perforated and cut bones, in the cave of Rians.
The fissures and caves of Mentone, explored by Mr. Moggridge246 in 1871, and subsequently by M. Rivière, contained a fauna composed, according to Prof. Busk, of the following species:—
Marmot.
Field-vole.
Lion.
Panther.
Lynx.
Wild-cat.
Spotted hy?na.
Wolf.
Fox.
Brown bear.
Cave-bear.
Roe.
Stag.
Ibex.
Urus.
Horse.
Wild-boar.
Rhinoceros hemit?chus.
Along with these were large quantities of charcoal and flint flakes, which proved that man had inhabited the district while the deposits were being formed.
374 Mr. Moggridge gives the following account of the results of his exploration:—247
“The caves of the red rocks, half a mile out of Mentone, are in lofty rocks of jurassic limestone on the shore of the Mediterranean, and at an average height of 100 feet above that sea, the rocks themselves attaining an elevation of 260 feet. They have now been repeatedly rifled by the learned or the curious; but when the principal cave (Cavillon) was nearly intact, the author made a section of it from the modern or highest floor, down to the solid rock. There were five floors formed in the earth by long-continued trampling; on each, and near the centre, were marks of fire, around which broken bones and flints were abundant, except upon the lowest, where but few bones occurred, and no flints. The bones were those of animals still existing. Few implements were found, but many chips of flint, some cores and stones used as hammers. Perhaps this cave was used as a place for manufacturing flints, which must have been carried from their native bed, distant about one mile.
“There is nothing to evince the action of water; on the contrary, the numerous stones that occur are all angular.... Below these caves a slope of about 180 feet descends to the edge of the sea. Through the upper part of this slope, at distances from the cave of from 0 to ten feet, is a railway cutting 600 feet long, fifty-four feet deep, and sixty feet above the sea. The mass removed in making this cutting was composed of angular stones not waterworn. Loose at the surface, it soon became a more or less mature breccia, for the most part so hard that it was blasted with gunpowder.” In this breccia, and at various depths, some of more than thirty375 feet, the author has taken out teeth of the bear (Ursus spel?us) and of the hy?na (Hy?na spel?a) while with and below those teeth he found flints worked by man.
The subsequent exploration by M. Rivière248 has resulted in no important addition to the fauna: the famous human skeleton having been, as I have already remarked in the seventh chapter, interred in the pleistocene strata, and probably not pal?olithic. It may possibly be of the era of the upper floors described by Mr. Moggridge, in which all the remains belong to living species.249
This cave-fauna is more closely related to that of southern Europe than to that north of the Alps and Pyrenees. The striped hy?na found in the cave of Lunel-viel, Hérault, by Marcel de Serres, along with the reindeer and other animals, probably belongs to the same southern group.
Bone-caves of Sicily.
Certain members of the African fauna are also proved to have ranged northwards over Europe in the direction of Sicily, by the discoveries in the caves of that island. The Sicilian bone-caves have been worked for the sake376 of the bones since the year 1829; and of these many shiploads were sent to Marseilles from San Ciro, belonging, according to M. de Christol, principally to the hippopotamus. In 1859,250 Dr. Falconer examined the collections made from this cave, as well as those which remained in situ, and carried on further researches into a second in the neighbourhood, known as the Grotto di Maccagnone, and in the following year two others were discovered and explored in northern Sicily by Baron Anca. The species were as follows:—
Homo, man.
Felis leo, lion.
Hy?na crocuta, spotted hy?na.
Ursus ferox,251 grizzly bear.
Canis.
Cervus, deer.
Bos, ox.
Equus, horse.
Sus scrofa, boar.
Elephas antiquus.
Elephas Africanus, African elephant.
Hippopotamus major, hippopotamus.
Hippopotamus Pentlandi.
Lepus.
The presence of man was indicated by charcoal and flint flakes.
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 hy?na, 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 they377 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.
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 pigmy378 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 “Pal?ontographical 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 versa, 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 Africa379 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. Gervais254 observes that most of the insectivora are380 the same in Europe and north Africa. The genette and ferret (F?torius furo), the Mangousta Wi............