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Extract of a Letter* from the Right ffon. J. H. FRERE, writ- 

 ten from Malta to Dr Davy, on the subject of a Natural 

 Phenomenon recently discovered in the neighbourhood of the 

 Pieta.f- Communicated by Dr DAVY.J 



You may recollect my attempt at forming a kitchen-garden 

 at the.Pieta by levelling a piece of rocky ground at the top of 

 the hill ; it has led to a discovery which is very extraordinary, 

 and which to every person who has visited it appears unac- 

 countable. 



Near the Carruba tree, which you may remember on your 

 right hand at the top of the new flight of steps, a piece of rock 

 had been left untouched for fear of injury to the tree; at 

 length, however, we ventured to remove this last remnant of 

 rock. It was found to rest on a body of clay, about twenty- 

 seven feet in length, and (at the surface) about fifteen in width. 

 Asa welcome addition to the scanty collection of soil which 

 had served to cover the rocks and stones, one-half of the 

 length and the whole of the width was excavated to the depth 

 of about twelve feet ; but in doing this, stones (one or two of 

 them as big as a man's head) were found imbedded in the clay, 

 evidently rounded by the action of water ; others were found of 

 a laminous texture, in which all the crevices and interstices 

 were penetrated by the clay, shewing that this same clay 

 (though it had now become so hard, and dense, and heavy, as 



From the Malta Gazette, 26th July 1836. 



t Any persons who on a Sunday orfesta may wish to visit the premises, will 

 be admitted on applying to the gardener, Giovanni Moretti, Vico Secondo, JVo. 2 

 Molo della Pietb. 



DEAR SIR, I am induced by the interest of the subject to send you an 

 extract of a letter, published in the Malta Gaxetlc, which Mr Frere has been 

 pleased to address to me, relating to certain geological appearances recently 

 discovered in Malta. One important point of inquiry to which they seem to 

 lead is, the connection of the traces of human art with indications of great 

 changes in the physical condition of the surface ; and associated with other 

 facts relative to Malta, they may possibly warrant the conclusion, that Malta 

 was inhabited by man before the great catastrophe took place to which it 

 owes its present form, and by which it may have been separated from the 

 continent. The bone noticed by Mr Frere in his letter, in the opinion of M. 

 Clift, to whom I have submitted it, is probably a portion of the radius of a 

 ruminating animal perhaps a goat. I have examined it chemically, and have 

 found it in composition very similar to the bone of the bone-breccia, which 

 occurs in many parts of the shores of the Mediterranean, consisting chiefly of 

 phosphate of lime, without any animal matter, and with a larger proportion of 

 carbonate of lime than exists in recent bone. Dr Davy in a letter to the Editor. 



