ON VERTEBRATE REMAINS FROM THE MALTESE ISLANDS. Din 
40. On Remains of Mastopon and other Vurreprata of the Mxo- 
CENE bie of the Mauresr Istanps. By A. Lerrn Apams, Esq., 
F.R.S., F.G.5, Professor of Natural History in Queen’s College, 
per (Read December 18, 1878). 
[Puarze XXV.]| 
THe well-deserved reputation maintained by the Maltese Islands 
in connexion with their fossil fauna has been increased by a dis- 
covery lately made by my distinguished friend Mr. C. A. Wright, 
F.L.S. In a collection of animal remains he has lately forwarded 
to me from the Miocene beds of the islands, among other interesting 
relics I find two molars of Mastodon. The finding of Proboscideans 
in the rock-strata is of especial concern, and cannot prove otherwise 
than suggestive with reference to the historical geology of the de- 
posits. I propose therefore, in the first place, to epitomize the main 
facts relating to the structure and stratigraphical arrangement of 
the beds and their characteristic fossils, considering especially how far 
there is evidence of any of the fauna having been derived from older 
formations. In the second place, I will enumerate all the Vertebrata 
hitherto discovered in the Miocene beds. The Invertebrata have 
been carefully described or named by Forbes*, Wrightt, Davidsont, 
Rupert Jones§, Martin Dunean||/, and Woodward4. As described 
in a previous paper**, Maltese formations are divisible into (1) the 
Upper Limestone, (2) Sand bed, (3) Marl, (4) Caleareous Sand- 
stone, (5) Lower Limestone ; ; all of which are conformable. 
I. The Uprrr Tanestone attains its greatest depth in the island 
of Comino, which is composed of it entirely, attaining a thickness of 
about 250 feet above the sea-level. It is the surface-formation 
along the western portion of Malta and the highlands of Gozo ; but 
I doubt if its original thickness is preserved anywhere. Indications 
of more recent beds are seen in blocks of weathered limestone 
known as the Gozo marble, which are seen strewing the valley east- 
ward of the light-house on the northern shore, and in fragments of 
a black marble or limestone which strew the sides and summits of 
the Gozo hills?}. Like all the other beds, it has been extensively 
* Proc. Geol. Soc. vol. iv. p. 230. 
+ Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 2 » vol. Xv. ; Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xx. p. 474. 
t+ Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 3, vol. xiv.; & Geol. Mag. 1864. 
§ Geologist, April 1864, & Geol. Mag. vol. i. p. 102. 
|| Geol. Mag. vol. i. p. 97. 
4| Report Brit. Assoc. 1872, p. 825. Dr. Woodward is engaged in working out 
the Crustacea collected by me in the Maltese Islands. 
** Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xx. p. 470. See also Spratt, Proceed. Geol. 
Soe. vol. iv. p. 225. The geological map appended to the author’s memoir 
onthe elephants of Malta in the Trans. Zool. Soe. vol. ix. pl. xxii. may be referred 
to with advantage. 
tt A fragment of this limestone, examined by Professor Rupert Jones, F.R.8., 
showed Amphistegine and ossicles of Asteroidea. There can, I believe, be little 
doubt that these fragments have no connexion whatever with any of the exis- 
tent formations of the islands. (Geol. Mag. vol. iii. p. 152.) 
