I 542 ] 

 LIV . Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 

 [Continued from p. 142.] 



November 21st, 1894. — Dr. Henry Woodward, F.R.S., President, 



in the Chair. 



'T^HE following communications were read : — 



-*- 1. 'The Pleistocene Beds of the Maltese Islands.' By John H. 



Cooke, Esq., F.L.S., F.G.S. 



For the right understanding of the Pleistocene beds, a previous 

 knowledge of the physiography of the islands and of the earlier 

 sediments is necessary. A full description of the physiography 

 and of the character of the sediments, so far as they are necessary 

 for the understanding of the accumulations forming the subject of 

 the paper, occupies its earlier portion. Especially noticeable is the 

 absence of ordinary anticlinal and synclinal folding, and the pre- 

 dominance of monoclinal faults, which largely affect the character 

 of the surface. These faults were formed prior to the deposition of 

 the Pleistocene beds. 



The plateaux of Malta, rising to a height of 600-800 feet above 

 sea-level, occur south of the great east-and-west fault, which has a 

 downthrow to the north. They have no Pleistocene deposits upon 

 their summits. 



Three classes of superficial deposits are described : — 



1. Valley- deposits, including (a) those found on the higher slopes 

 of plains and plateaux, due to subaerial waste and rain-action, con- 

 taining land-shells and mammalian bones ; and (b) those situated 

 at the bottoms of valleys, consisting of stratified layers of water- 

 worn sand, gravel, and large pebbles, occurring in such order as to 

 show that the agents which produced them have greatly decreased 

 in intensity. 



II. Agglomerates and breccias found along coast-lines and fault- 

 terraces, always at the foot of the fault-terraces, or along the lower 

 slopes of the depressed areas : these accumulations are either sub- 

 merged or lie at the water-line. Their materials are much water- 

 worn, and land-shells are contained in many of the layers. The 

 agglomerates are in many cases distinctly stratified ; and the author 

 concludes that the materials appear to have been swept down, 

 during heavy rainfall, into the waters of land-locked creeks. 



III. Ossiferous deposits of caves and fissures, which have been 

 described elsewhere. 



2. ' Geological Notes of a Journey in Madagascar.' By the Rev. 

 R. Baron, F.L.S., F.G.S. 



The part of the island travelled over may be divided into four 

 sections. 



I. Antananarivo to the East Coast. — The principal rock is a horn- 

 blende granitite- gneiss, but there is also much norite usually con- 

 taining olivine. The general strike of gneiss and norite along this 



