106 Dr. T. Wright on Fossil Echinoderms 



CiRRHiPODA. Schizaster Desori, Wright. 



Balanus stellaris. Spatangus Hoifmanni, Goldf. 



Lepas sp. Scutella subrotunda, Leske. 



/-I striatula. Marcel de Serres. 



. *^ ' Brissopsis crescenticus, Wright. 



Numerous remains of this class. Hemiaster Grateloupi, Desor. 



EcHiNODERMATA. SciUae, Wright. 



Schizaster Parkinsonii, Defrance. Cotteaui, Wright. 



No. 5. The hard chnty limestone, " is a yellowish-white 

 cream-coloured limestone, having sometimes semi-crystalline 

 strata alternating with an oolitic grit or sandstone, apparently 

 composed of minute fragments of shells and corals. It attains 

 a considerable thickness, since nearly 400 feet of it in perpen- 

 dicular depth is visible on the north-west coast of Gozo." 

 {Spratt.) "This bed forms a high and rocky coast-line on the 

 south end of Malta, and dipping to the north appears about the 

 water-line in the neighbourhood of Valetta and Sliema, forming 

 a barrier to the sea. Probably the softer superincumbent beds 

 have in course of time been worn away, till the appearance of 

 this rock arrested any further encroachment. A Scutella inva- 

 riahly marks the junction of this bed with No. 4." {Earl Ducie.) 

 The New Dock is built of this rock, and it is quarried in several 

 places for building purposes, and it is likewise burned for lime. 



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, 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 iMaltese deposits 

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

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

 ]\Iichelin, the eminent zoophytologist of Paris, we received 

 some time since a number of Echinida from this Corsican 

 deposit, which we have carefully compared with the fine suite 

 of jNIaltese 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 jMiocene 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 



