Jones — Note on some Specimens from Malta. 151 



stone. The straight low -undercutting of these rocks coald only 

 have been done by the constant lapping of the all but tideless sea, 

 and not by the force of large waves. The clear blue water of 

 the Mediterranean, the colour of which proves that it contains 

 but little sediment, must have beaten long in the same place before 

 it could have eaten so far into so hard a rock. This undercutting at 

 the sea-level may also be seen in the cliffs of Lower Limestone at 

 Eas-er-Eaheb. 



An interesting corroboration of this is supplied by the zoology of 

 the Island. The rock of Pilfla, about 2f miles distant from Malta, 

 is inhabited by a Lizard found nowhere else. This Lizard, although 

 only considered as a variety of Podarcis muralis (the Green Lizard 

 so common in Italy), is larger than the typical form of that species, 

 and is perfectly black on its upper parts, and spotted with green and 

 blue on its belly. It must have taken a long time to produce so 

 distinct a variety, during which time Filfla was evidently separate 

 from Malta ; and, as the channel between them is only 37 fathoms 

 deep, and Filfla itself is only 150 feet high, no great elevation or 

 depression can have taken place. 



It was during this last period that all the minor physical features 

 of the Island were formed, either by rain or atmospheric decomposi- 

 tion. To this class belong all the small rocky valleys, or " fiu- 

 mares," and most of the inland cliffs, some of the latter being also 

 partly due to the hand of man. 



In this sketch it must not be supposed that 1 pretend to have 

 stated all the oscillations to which the Island has been subjected, I 

 have only enumerated those which appear to me to have more or less 

 proof : for instance, during the last upheaval of the Island, the 

 periods of rest may have been very numerous, but proofs of two 

 alone remain, which two were probably of longer duration than the 

 others. 



APPENDIX. 

 NOTE ON SOME SPECIMENS FEOM MALTA. 



By Professor T. Eupert Jones, F.G.S. 

 Eoyal Military College, Sandhurst. 



Captain Huxton permits me to append the following observations 

 on some Maltese specimens which I have received from our friend 

 Dr. A. L. Adams, since I noticed a former set of specimens in the 

 " Geologist," of April 1861 (vol. vii. p. 133) :— 



1. — From the Upper Limestone. A friable yellow shell-grit, com- 

 posed of rolled fragments of Polyzoa, Pecten, Heterostegina, etc. 

 Probably from the lower part of this group of beds. 



2. — From the Sand Bed. (" Heterostegina-bed " of Captain Hut- 

 ton's memoir). A friable, yellow, fine-grained, sandy shell-gTit, 

 with abundance of well-preserved Heterostegina depressa. The 

 grains of sand are round and chiefly brown and green (silicate of 

 iron, etc.), with some quartz. The green grains are mostly rough 

 segmented or lobulated, as glauconite often appears in sand, and 

 some have apparently been derived from casts of Foraminifera 

 Polyzoa, etc. 



