Clement Reid — Scotch Inter-Glacial Deposits. 217 



was founcl. The matrix in which the jaw and teeth are embedded 

 has considerable numbers of minute phosphatic nodules distributed 

 through it, and also great numbers of the phosphatized remains of 

 Eynlcea and Vnginella. 



Dr. John Murray considers that this portion of the Globigerina 

 Limestone was deposited on a rising sea-floor, and in, approximately, 

 about 300 fathoms of water.' 



The late Prof. Leith Adams found several teeth of Phoca in the 

 rocks around the Bay of Marsa Forno, Gozo. These he forwarded to 

 the late Professor Sir R. Owen, and on them Owen founded the new 

 species Phoca rugosidens. I have carefully gone over the district 

 around Xenchia and Marsa Forno, and have come to the conclusion 

 that Adams' fossils could only have come from the upper layers of 

 the Grlobigerina bed. 



From a comparison of the Malta University specimen and of the 

 isolated tooth found by myself, with those found by Adams and 

 with the description given by Owen, the two former are undoubtedly, 

 I believe, specimens of the extinct species described by Owen under 

 the name of Phoca rugosidens. I may note that the late Professor 

 van Beneden, after having seen my sketches, suggested that the 

 specimen might be an example of P. ScUlce. I was preparing to 

 send my specimen to him, when I heard of his death. Besides 

 these, numerous canines of a Phoca have from time to time been 

 found in the upper Globigerina layers and in the " Greensands." 

 Several very fine examples of these are carefully preserved in the 

 Malta Museum. Kemains of fossil seals were discovered in the 

 Malta beds in the early part of the seventeeth century. 



Scilla^ figured some teeth in 1670; and Agassiz and Gervais, 

 commenting on Scilla's illustration, pointed out that it was referable 

 to the genus Phocodon. 



There is in the Naples Museum a fine specimen which is labelled 

 Phoca ScillcB, and which is said to have come from Malta. This 

 specimen has been figured and described by Costa ^ in his appendix 

 to the " Paleontologia del Kegno di Napoli." It is much to be 

 regretted that the authorities of the Museum at Naples possess no 

 definite information either as to the locality or the horizon whence 

 it was obtained. 



V. — On Scottish Inter-Glacial Deposits. 

 By Clement Reid, F.L.S., F.G.S. 



IN the new edition of his " Great Ice Age," Professor James 

 Geikie devotes a good deal of space to the inter-Glacial peats 

 found in Scotland. Perhaps, as the plants from nearly all these 

 deposits have passed through my hands, 1 may be allowed to venture 



1 Dr. John Murray, " The Maltese Islands, with special reference to their 

 geological structure," Scot. Geograph. Mag. September, 1890. 



2 Scilla, " De Corporibus Marinus," 1670, Eoma; " De raua speculazione," 1780. 



3 Costa, 0. G., "Paleontologia del Eegno di Napoli," part ii, p. 83, Tav. vi, 

 figs. 16, 18. 



