370 Brigadier Silvertop> Sketch of the Tertiary Formaticyn 



veral of the small islets along the coast to the east of Malaga, as 

 well as on the banks of some of the ravines by which torrents in 

 the rainy season xiescend to the Mediterranean from the conti- 

 guous mountainous district, small patches belonging to the su- 

 perior portion of the tertiary formation, or to group 2, may be 

 observed. 



About a mile from Malaga, on the Velez-Malaga road, there 

 is a little inlet or ravine called La Caleta, which forms the bed 

 of a stream that descends from the mountainous country towards 

 the north, and here enters the shingle of the Mediterranean 

 shore. Proceeding up this ravine for a few hundred yards, its 

 low banks being first of all composed of detritus, with an occa- 

 sional projecting rock of greywacke, a path leads from it to an 

 old fort constructed on a hill at a short distance from its left 

 bank. The bank at this point, little elevated above the bed of 

 the ravine, is formed of gravelly sandy marl, containing pectens. 

 Fifty yards up the ascent "towards the fort, a mass of sandy 

 marl is observed full of pectens, balani, and fragments of ostreae. 

 This mass takes in places a conglomerate character, from an ad- 

 mixture of fragments of different rocks consolidated in the for- 

 mer by a ferruginous cement, and contains similar shells, but they 

 are generally broken. Tertiary beds were not observed higher 

 up than this point, the path in the ascent beyond the fort getting 

 upon secondary red sandstone crowned by nummulite limestone. 

 Descending to and proceeding higher up the ravine, a little cir- 

 cular basin is soon reached, filled up with a deposit of yellow- 

 ish sandy marl full of tertiary organic remains, bounded on one 

 side by the high hill upon which the castle of Malaga stands, 

 and on the other by a still higher hill termed El Cerro de San 

 Cristobal. In an escarpment this low tract forms to the ravine 

 testaceous remains in abundant, and in an excellent state of pre- 

 servation, some of them partially retaining their colour. The 

 predominating shells are small pectens, but a Dentalium^ a Tro- 

 chus, and some fragments of ostreae were also collected. 



. The road from Malaga to tlie point where this ravine was 

 entered, is bounded towards the north by the hill upon which 

 its old castle stands, and towards the south by the beach of the 

 Mediterranean. In passing this road, which leads to Velez- 

 Malaga, and for the next two miles is confined towards the north 



