60 Dr. T. Wright on Fossil Eclmwdcrnis 



Fossils of No. 5. 



The fossils of this bed are imperfectly known, from being 

 obtained with much difficulty. Of Mollusca, casts of Solarium, 

 Conus, Phorus, Natica, Cypraa, Pecten, Lucina, and of the 

 Cirrhipoda, Balanus, have been recognized in it. Of the Echi- 

 nodermata, " Scutella subrotunda, Clypcaster, sp., Brissus, sp., 

 identical with that of No. 2. Such is also the case with the 

 Pectens." (Forbes.) 



We cannot conclude our brief notice of these Maltese deposits 

 without alluding to a similar Urchin bed of the same age in 

 the island of Corsica. Through the kindness of our friend M. 

 Michelin, the eminent zoophytologist of Paris, we received 

 some time since a number of Echinidfs from this Corsican 

 deposit, which we have carefully compared with the fine suite 

 of Maltese Echinoderms now before us. Many of the species 

 from Corsica and Malta are identical, although some from both 

 islands are special to each region. From these data we con- 

 clude, that the deposits containing the Echinoderms described 

 in the sequel of this memoir are of the Miocene period, and of 

 the same age as the tertiaries of the south of France, the north 

 of Italy, and of Doberg bei Biinde in Westphalia. M. Collomb, 

 an eminent French geologist, lately visited the Urchin bed near 

 Bonifacio in Corsica, and has given an account thereof in a 

 letter addressed to Prof. Constant Prevost ; the following abstract 

 relating thereto will be read with interest : 



" We shall quit now," says M. Collomb, " the eruptive rocks, 

 and transport ourselves to the south, at Bonifacio, where we 

 have remained some days, to go and see the bed of fossil Urchins. 

 They are found in a fragment of limestone completely enclosed 

 in the granite. Bonifacio is built upon a high escarpment of 

 this limestone, formed of horizontal beds having a coarse struc- 

 ture, full of the fragments of shells, the species of which were 

 indeterminable. This escarpment is incessantly beaten and 

 demolished by the action of the wind and the sea. Upon all 

 this coast the beds overhang, and are worn into caverns by the 

 inroads of the sea. 



" The bed of Urchins is situated at some leagues to the north- 

 east of Bonifacio, towards the roadstead of Santa-Manza, at the 

 limit of the granite. The escarpment itself is here granitic, 

 and the Urchin limestone caps the granite. The bed which 

 contains the most beautiful specimens is only accessible by 

 means of a ladder, and their extraction is difficult." 



The Calcaire a Oursins is only found in three localities in 

 Corsica, at Bonifacio, at Aleria, and at Saint -Florent, and 



