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



intermixture has taken place in about equal proportions more or less 

 distinct traces of bedding are perceptible, but where the rock- 

 fragments or the loam respectively predominate the bed exhibits 

 no definite structure. The alluvial beds are found in the valleys 

 that have long, gentle slopes. These deposits are very uniform in 

 their nature and composition. The rock-fragments that enter so 

 largely into their composition are small in size, and of local origin. 

 They are most numerous in the middle portions of the deposits, and 

 are generalhy \evy freely distributed in the divisions that are situated 

 above the middle line. These beds have as their homologues the 

 alluvial calcareous earths which are at present being slowly formed 

 along the valley terraces by the action of rain-wash. Both are 

 similar in composition, and both are devoid of structure. The 

 fossils found in these beds consist of land-shells in a very com- 

 minuted condition. 



At Dueira, Tal Asiri, Eedum Ahmar, Tal Mistra, and San Giorgio, 

 fi'agments of the limb-bones of ruminants and of horn-cores of a 

 species of Cervus were found in comparative abundance. It is 

 a noticeable fact that no plant-remains have been found either in 

 these or in any of the other superficial beds of the islands. But this 

 is to be expected when the broken condition in which the shells and 

 the mammalian remains were found is taken into consideration. The 

 maceration and the rough usage which the plant-remains must have 

 undergone, would have effectually destroyed them long befoi'e they 

 could have been deposited with the other materials. And even if 

 the deposition had been accomplished, the loose, porous nature of the 

 beds is such as to have been highly favourable to their rapid 

 decomposition. At the debouchures of all of the larger gorges 

 plains of considerable area occur consisting of stratified deposits of 

 alluvial material. These have been spread out in a fan-shaped form, 

 the apex of the cone of dispersion being the mouth of the gorge. 

 In none of these alluvial tracts have any appreciable changes been 

 effected by the storm rainfall of modern times. 



Proceeding now to a consideration of the agglomerates, we see 

 that they possess many features that differentiate them from the 

 foregoing beds. They are always found lying either at the foot of 

 fault- terraces or along the lower slopes of other depressed areas. 

 And they are either submerged or lie immediately at the water-line. 

 In no instance have any of them been found in the plateaux. They 

 are very similar in composition and arrangement in every part of 

 the islands. The materials are of local origin, and consist of 

 rounded and subangular boulders, pebbles, and grit. Land-shells 

 are abundant, and at Benhisa and Malak numerous remains of 

 Elephas Falconeri, E. Mnaidra, and Hippopotamus Pentlandi were 

 found. At Dueira and Tal Asiri the bones and horn-cores of 

 Cervus sp. ? were abundant, and at Hamrun the teeth and bones 

 of Hippopotamus Pentlandi were very numerous. 



