240 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Feb. 24, 



According to Pere de Moustier, the return of the messengers took 

 place 16th Oct. 709. This date agrees with that assigned to the 

 event by the metrical chronicle quoted by the Abbe De la Rue, who 

 observes, "Ces revolutions durent avoir lieu suivant le poete sous 

 Fepiscopat de St. Aubert et sous le regne de Childebert," vol. ii. 

 p. 303. 



The Abbe Manet states, that during the great gale of 9th Jan. 1 735, 

 the violence of the sea " sur les greves du Mont Saint Michel fit sortir 

 des sables une quantite prodigieuse de ces billes qu'on y trouvsi j)resque 

 toutes couchees du nord au sud,'^ p. 53. This is exactly the position in 

 which the sea, rushing in to fill up a sudden depression, would lay the 

 stems, as the bay of Mont St. Michel or Cancale is open to the north. 



The last proof of recent submergence which I have to offer belongs 

 to the antiquarian division of the human period ; it occurs in the 

 islands of Malta and Gozo. 



A great part of the surface of the island of Malta is composed of a 

 soft stone (miocene tertiary) ; across it may be observed the tracks of 

 wheels, about 4 feet apart and very deeply marked on the rocks, 

 the depth being rarely less than 18 inches. They cross the island 

 in every direction, but have no connexion with any of the existing 

 lines of communication, neither is there any tradition concerning 

 them. On the south side of Malta they terminate in the mural 

 escarpments which skirt that part of the coast. At the east end, at 

 a place called St. George, in the Bay of Marsa Sirocco, I observed 

 them passing under the sea as far as my eye could reach. On this 

 occasion the water was turbid from the quantity of sea-weed which 

 had been blown into the bay ; but Bres, a Maltese author, in his 

 ' Malta Antica Illustrata,' states that they can be observed at the bot- 

 tom of the sea, as far as the eye can reach in the clearest weather. He 

 also mentions that they occur at the west end of Malta, and on the 

 opposite part of Gozo (p. 59). As he has not indicated the precise 

 locality, I searched for the tracks in vain at the west end of the island. 

 Mr. St. John of Valetta informs me, that he has observed these tracks 

 on Filfolo, a detached rock which lies about a mile distant from 

 Malta. 



At St. Paul's Bay, on the north-west side of the island, there is a 

 narrow channel separating the small island of Selmoon from the main 

 land of Malta. Across this channel, at the depth of 1 or 12 feet, may 

 be seen a vertical escarpment of about the same height, causing a sudden 

 change in the depth of water of about two fathoms. This is evidently 

 an ancient sea-cliff, indicating a period of stationary level anterior to 

 the present ; but this must have been preceded by another movement 

 of depression, also within the human period, for this difference of 

 height would not account for the continuity of Malta, Gozo and Fil- 

 folo, which the occurrence of these tracks, in each of them, seems to 

 indicate. 



The occurrence of the fossil elephant in Gozo, formerly noticed*, 

 probably belongs to a much more remote period. 



* Proceedings of the Geological Society, June 1846. 



