J. H. Cooke— The Pleistocene Beds of Malta. 203 



that it is at all times being battered by the Mediterranean waters, 

 but though blocks of the underlying limestone have been broken 

 off and hurled by the storm-waves to considerable distances, the 

 agglomerates have been but little affected. The thickness of the 

 deposit averages about four feet. I have made many careful ex- 

 aminations of the bed, but the only trace of organic remains that 

 I could find was a portion of a bone of some mammal which I 

 detached from a mass of the agglomerate which lay on the shore-line 

 immediately below the Scicluna Palace. Similar deposits are to 

 be seen at the head of the bay and on the shore-line of the Melleha 

 road. Below Ghain tal Razul there is another and more recent 

 accumulation of a similar character which averages about 16 feet 

 in thickness. It lies on the shore-line at the mouth of the Razul 

 valley, and unconformably on the Globigerina Limestone. Unlike 

 its more ancient prototype it consists of several distinct beds. 

 a. The base is composed of silt and fine gravel, intermixed with 

 a few pebbles of Globigerina Limestone of varying sizes 

 and shapes. 

 6. Above this is a layer of about 15 feet in thickness, consisting 

 of subangular and rounded masses of the Upper Coralline 

 Limestone and of the Globigerina Limestone indiscriminately 

 heaped together and embedded in a loose red earth. 

 The deposit is roughly stratified, and it is quite unfossiliferous. 

 On the old Melleha road the plateau slopes are covered with con- 

 siderable quantities of the brecciated loams. 



The Hamrun Beds. — These deposits lie on the summit and along 

 the sides of an elevated ridge of the Globigerina Limestone, which 

 lies between the Marsa plain and the Marsamuscetto harbour. The 

 ridge forms the eastern boundary of the Marsa plain, and rises from 

 it with a gradual ascent. It lies immediately opposite to the mouth 

 of the gorge, Uied Kbir, and in a line with Uied Curmi. These 

 two gorges form the main drainage channels of the most extensive 

 catchment basin in Malta. 



The height of the summit of the ridge above the Marsa plain 

 vai'ies, the outline being undulatory, and it has a gradual decline 

 toward the head of the Grand Harbour ; but the average of the 

 highest points is about forty feet. 



okgi^mt Mart a. f£a.tx Jtimrm Al^Uc Gtu.K 



A few years ago the whole of the summit of the ridge was laid 

 out in fields, but latterly house-building has progressed so rapidly 

 that the area has now been converted into a densely populated 

 suburb of Valletta. It was whilst the drainage system of the 

 neighbourhood was in process of construction, and the new streets 

 were being laid out, that my attention was first called to the 

 occurrence of these agglomerates, with the molars of Hippopotami 



