460 REPORT -]8G6. 



remains, are common throughout the denuded district, displaying in every 

 instance the same jjell-mell aiTangoment of their contents. 



(4) Benghira Gap. — At the S.E. extremity of Malta, and five mQcs from 

 Mnaidra Gap, in the calcareous sandstone, is situated a little gorge, forming 

 an inlet up which the sea penetrates for 700 feet to the hase of an accumula- 

 tion of stratified blocks of sandstone and red soil, which fill the further end of 

 the gap, and extend inwards for several hundred feet. My attention was 

 directed to this spot during the winter months of 1864, in consequence of 

 observing several elephants' teeth and bones lying among the debris. The 

 sides of this hollow incline at angles of 45°, embracing between them a 

 surface breadth of 110 feet of alluvial deposit, the maximum height being 

 32 feet. An entire section of this gap displays the following appearances :^ 

 A layer of large partially waterworn blocks of sandstone, deiived from 

 the pale variety in which the gap is formed, occupies several feet of the 

 bottom, mixed up peU-mell with red soU and silt, derived from disintegrated 

 fragments of the same sandstone. Supeiimposed on the mass is a layer of 

 gravel and much waterworn pebbles of the parent rock, presenting the 

 hardening process by which the percolation of water highly charged with 

 carbonate of lime had for the most part converted them into a compact 

 limestone. The above passed into a stratum, 3 ft. in thickness, of red 

 loam highly impregnated with iron, and containing pebbles with a few 

 larger sandstone blocks ; the latter form another layer several feet in thick- 

 ness, on the top of the last. These blocks are far more roimded and water- 

 worn than the lowermost, with deep grooves and hollows scooped out on their 

 surfaces, — the largest attaining a girth of from ten to fifteen feet, and showing, 

 as in the case of all the stones in the gap, the metamorphic process referred 

 to, which proceeds from without inward, so that many present an outer ring of 

 a pale green limestone, whilst the inner part retains the original soft porous 

 texture of the rock. It was in this layer, situated from 22 to 25 feet from 

 the surface, that the greatest amount of organic remains was discovered, more 

 especially on the eastern side, where the blocks are not so numerous and the 

 soil is more closely packed between them than on the Avest side, where the 

 stones were more crowded, with little soil between them, and that of a finer 

 consistence, as if it had been ground by attrition between the blocks. As 

 before, another layer of pebbles and soil lay on the top of the last-mentioned 

 stratum and to within about 4 feet of the surface, where the deep-red 

 loam changed to a white calcareous drift, containing scattered fragments of 

 sandstone, which showed some appearances of stratification. Thus the sec- 

 tion displayed several distinct alternations of large blocks and layers of loam 

 and pebbles, representing peiiods of violence and comparative quiescence such 

 as might be expected from occasional violent floods and freshets succeeded by 

 less powerful currents which only bore down the lighter detritus. This is 

 well seen in the layers of red loam with waterworn pebbles interspersed 

 throughout at various levels, as if they had slowly sunk in the soft mud at 

 the bottom of a stream. The organic remains were discovered at all levels, 

 excepting in the white upper drift, and showed undeniable traces of the forces 

 which had acted so powerfully on the other contents. Among the large blocks 

 of sandstone were found portions, and, in one or two instances, seemingly 

 entire skeletons of elephants, together with numbers of the great dormouse, 

 between the masses of rock, as if the Rodent had been di-owned and had sunk 

 into the hollows between the stones. Fragments of birds' bones of large di- 

 mensions, together with those of the great river-tortoise, a small lizard aboiit 

 the dimensions of the common chameleon, and i'rogs, were met with chiefly in 

 the red loam and pebbly strata. Land shells in large numbers, principally 

 belonging to HcJix and ClaasUia, were frequently found under the largest 



