On Fossil Echinoderms from the Island of Malta; with Notes on 
the stratigraphical distribution of the Fossil Organisms in the 
Maltese beds. By Tuomas Wricut, M.D. &c., Professor of 
the Natural Sciences in the Cheltenham Grammar School. 
Reap 14TH SErpreMBeER 1854. 
A. Notes on the Maltese beds, with the species they contuin. 
Tue Island of Malta is entirely composed of tertiary rocks of 
Miocene age, which have been described by Capt. Spratt, R.N.*, 
and surveyed and mapped by the Earl Duciey. Through his 
lordship’s kindness, we have been enabled to study a complete 
suite of Maltese rock specimens, together with an extensive col- 
lection of the fossils obtained from them, whilst resident in the 
island; and it is but just that we should state, at the outset of 
these remarks, that whatever is valuable in this memoir relating 
to the stratigraphical distribution of the Urchins and other 
fossils in these beds, is entirely due to the Earl Ducie, who has 
most liberally given us all the information he noted on the spot, 
relative to the range and distribution of the species. It is to 
be distinctly understood, however, that neither the measurement 
of the beds, nor the limitation of the range of the fossils in 
them, are given as absolute truths, but rather as the nearest 
approximation thereto which the present state of our knowledge 
permits. : 
The Maltese islands comprise Malta, Gozo, and Cumino. 
Malta is seventeen miles in length by seven in breadth ; Gozo 
is nine in length by five in breadth; and Cumino about two 
in length by one in breadth. The direction of their long axis 
is 8.E. and N.W., which, with the channels, is about twenty-nine 
milesinlength. All the rocks are sedimentary and marine, having 
a slight inclination from N.E. to E.N.E.; their direction corre- 
sponds with that of the Apennines, and with the intermediate 
* “On the Geology of the Maltese Islands,” with Notes on the Fossils 
by Prof. E. Forbes. Proceed. of the Geol. Soc. London, vol. iv. p. 225. 
+ The Earl Ducie kindly presented a copy of this map to Mr. Good- 
enough, book- and map-seller, Strado Reale, Malta, by whom it is now 
being published. 
VOL. II. F 
