296 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Jan. 4, 



Pliocene). 12. St. Frediano, Colline Pisane (Miocene); this last 

 and No. 7 resemble the Amphistegina-bed of the Vienna Basin. 



Nos. 1-4 will be grouped together in one column, as they contain 

 but one series of forms, with a great uniformity of mineral matter. 



Excepting the Amphistegina-beds, the Italian Tertiaries under 

 notice yield Foraminifera similar to those of the Mediterranean, both 

 of shallow and deep habitats. 



The next columnized group will be that from Malaga. In the 

 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xv. p. 597 and p. 600, Prof. Ansted 

 has described the geological relations of the Tejares clay of the 

 neighbourhood of Malaga, and has briefly alluded to its very rich 

 Bhizopoclal fauna. This is the richest, next to that of the Siennese 

 tertiaries, that we know of, and well agrees with that of the present 

 Mediterranean, especially the Adriatic. 



Fossils in the collection of the Society, from the neighbourhood of 

 Turin, have afforded the shelly sands from which the next column 

 of species has been arranged. In many respects these are equivalent 

 to some of those from the Siennese district; especially the more 

 shallow- water forms. 



Palermo gives us the next column ; these materials being also 

 from the Society's collection. This fauna is more like that of the 

 recent shallow- water Mediterranean deposits than most of the Sien- 

 nese or the Malaga clays. 



Our Maltese Foraminifera belong to another fauna, characterized 

 by the abundance of Heterostegince (the reddish fragile limestone 

 being almost wholly composed of this shell). The recent analogue 

 of this fauna has to be sought for in the Eastern seas (Philippines). 



The Vienna Basin has afforded, as palaeontologists well know, a 

 large series of Foraminifera to the patient researches of D'Orbigny, 

 Czjeck, and Eeuss. Like the Amphistegina-beds of Italy and the 

 Heterostegina-rock of Malta, these Viennese Tertiaries are of older 

 date than the Pliocene beds of the Subapennine series, and are re- 

 garded as of Miocene age, or Oligocene of the German geologists. 

 The Viennese species have been so carefully figured and described by 

 the above-named palaeontologists that we gladly use their materials in 

 our columns of the Mediterranean species and of the fossil faunae 

 that preceded them in that area and the conterminous regions. 



A very important relic of an old fauna closely allied to the Mio- 

 cene forms of some of the Vienna deposits, and not without some 

 relationship to the Eocene beds of Grignon, is indicated by a 

 whitish shelly marl from Baljik, containing also remains of aquatic 

 mammals. This is referred to in the Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. 

 xiii. p. 77, by Capt. Spratt, who has also kindly supplied us with a 

 quantity of this valuable material for examination. This affords a 

 curious and instructive fauna, allied to that of the Mediterranean, 

 but having remarkable peculiarities. In mineral character it much 

 resembles the deep-sea deposits of the Mediterranean, having a large 

 proportion of greyish-white aluminous matter, and a considerable 

 quantity of fragments of Molluscan shells, with but a few that are 

 perfect, and those small. It docs not, however, contain the delicate 



