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



Pentlandi embedded in them. The section which was exposed when 

 trenching for the laying of water-pipes in Strada St. Giuseppe is of 

 a very interesting character. The following is the order in which 

 the layers occurred : — 



a. Alluvial soil. One foot in thickness. 



6. A whitish, highly calcareous loam ; very homogeneous, and ap- 

 parently structureless ; plastic and tenacious when wet, but 

 incoherent when dry. It contains a few small fragments of 

 decomposing limestone and numerous land-shells in a good 

 state of preservation. Two feet in thickness. 



c. A rich alluvial soil of a reddish colour. It is similar in its 



general characters to layer b, into which it merges by almost 

 imperceptible gradations. One specimen of Helix pisana was 

 found. The bed is about two feet in thickness. 



d. A layer of angular fragments of Lower Coralline Limestone, 



together with some decomposing fragments of Globigerina 

 Limestone. The matrix consists of a reddish clay nine inches 

 in thickness. 



e. Layer d gradually changes in its character towards its base until 



it passes into a typical conglomerate consisting of rounded 

 pebbles and fragments of bones and molars of Hippopotami 

 Pentlandi. The bed was so compact that it was only with 

 the greatest difficulty that the workmen were able to cut 

 through it. 



I was not able to ascertain the acreage over which the bed 

 extended, as the trench was but 2-| feet wide. It extended through- 

 out the length of the trench, a distance of 210 feet, and the average 

 thickness was 7f- feet. 



The layer of conglomerate was lenticular in shape, thinning out 

 in a south-east and a north-west direction. Its longer axis was at 

 right angles to the mouth of the Kbir gorge, from which it seemed 

 evident that the materials had been laid down at one extremity of 

 the " cone of dispersion " which had been formed on the plain by 

 the drainage waters of the gorge. 



The width of the bed is not, however, very great, as in many 

 of the sections which were exposed in the cess-pit and well-cuttings 

 in the vicinity no trace of the conglomerate could be found. 



The overlying beds extend for a considerable distance in all 

 directions. The thickness of these layers varies considerably. They 

 often assume a lenticular shape, and have their thin ends dovetailed 

 the one into the other. 



In a cutting which was made about fifteen yards to the north of 

 the tower in Strada St. Giuseppe the following beds were exposed : — 



a. Alluvial soil. One foot in thickness. 



b. An orange-coloured loam, unstratified, and containing an abundance 



of fossil land-shells. One foot six inches in thickness. 



c. An evenly bedded, slightly indurated limestone, which thinned 



out in a north-westerly direction. It was one foot six inches 

 in thickness, and passed imperceptibly into 





