2 Dr. L. Adams on the Geology of the Maltese Islands. 



dip runs from about north-east to east north-east, submerging 

 the lowermost bed, which, on the opposite coast-line, rises fully 

 300 feet above the sea-level. The inclination is in a line with 

 the Apennines and Sicilian range from the Val di Note to 

 Talizyi. Indications of great disturbances are ahown by five 

 great faults, four of which run in a transverse direction and 

 parallel with one another. The most extensive downthrow 

 traverses the entire breadth of Malta. The remaining fault 

 proceeds in a north-west and south-east direction. There ai^;, 

 besides, local sinkings ; and ancient sea-levels are apparent in 

 several situations. 



The mineral deposits arrange themselves, from the sea-level 

 upwards, in the following order : — 



5. Lower Limestone. 



4. Calcareous Sandstone. 



3. Marl. 



2. Sand. 



1. Upper Limestone. 



The Upper Limestone, Sand, and Marl beds have been com- 

 pletely denuded for the eastern half of Malta and the south and 

 north-western portions of Gozo. 



The Lower Limestone varies in colour and mineral consistence, 

 being either compact and seraicrystalline, almost amounting to 

 a variegated marble, of a cream-colour, and commonly known as 

 " Gozo marble," or a white, coarse, open-grained rock, contain- 

 ing hard rounded nodules, simulating an oolitic grit. On the 

 south-west coasts of Malta and Gozo, the Lower Limestone at- 

 tains a height of 300 feet above the level of the sea. A few of 

 its fossils seem peculiar to the bed, but the majority range up- 

 wards, and many throughout the entire series. Casts of a 

 gigantic Conus, Terebratula minor, Thecidium Adamsi, together 

 with Scutella subrotunda, Operculina complanata, an Orbitoides, 

 &c. have as yet been met with only in the Lower Limestone and 

 point of transition between this bed and the Calcareous Sand- 

 stone. Among the other organic remains common to the above 

 and superincumbent beds may be mentioned bones of Cetaceans, 

 teeth of Carcharodon, Diodon, Myliobatis, and Pycnodont fishes, 

 several species of Pecten, Ostrea, Echinus, and Cidaris, &c. 



The Calcareous Sandstone is granular, and not crystalline, in 

 texture ; the particles are minute, and evidently held together 

 by the combined force of cohesion and pressure. The Lower 

 Limestone passes into a white freestone, the latter into a light 

 fawn-coloured rock traversed by a band of irregular-shaped 

 horn-coloured nodules, which are firmly cemented together. 

 Abundance of Mollusca, chiefly belonging to Pecten, are strewn 



