60 Dr. T. Wright on Fossil Echinoderms 
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, Cyprea, Pecten, Lucina, and of the 
Cirrhipoda, Balanus, have been recognized in it. Of the Echi- 
nodermata, ‘ Scutella subrotunda, Clypeaster, 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 Echinide 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 containmg 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 Prévost ; 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 4 Oursins is only found in three localities in 
Corsica, at Bonifacio, at Aleria, and at Saint-Florent, and 
