Vol. 67.] KAINOZOIC MOLLUSCA FROM CTRENAICA. 617 



known of the palaeontology of Cyrenaica, although the few references 

 available suffice in a general way to indicate the geological relations 

 existing between that country and contiguous regions of Northern 

 Africa, Crete, and other portions of the Mediterranean area. 



Some of the earliest remarks on this subject were made by 

 Admiral T. A. B. Spratt, in his ; Travels & Researches in Crete ' 

 1865 (vol. ii, p. 378), where he incidentally described the geological 

 structure of Derna (Derneh) in Cyrenaica, reporting the occurrence 

 of freshwater deposits, and of an older group of strata, more ancient 

 than those of Malta, containing nummulitic tests such as are fouud 

 in Crete. It was further mentioned, in the same work, that at 

 Salum, to the east of Cyrenaica, ' Nautilus zigzaggia ' had been 

 found — a form which he believed to be restricted to the London 

 Clay, the Paris Basin, and the Maltese beds ; yellowish limestones 

 were also stated to occur above the nummulitic rocks at Derna, 

 full of pectens, echinoids, etc. This account of the structure of 

 Derna was embodied in the following section : — 



1. Freshwater deposits (lacustrine — Limncea). 



2. Yellowish limestone {Pecten, etc.). 



3. Nummulitic beds. 



Two years later, G. B. Stacey, in his paper ' On the Geology 

 of Benghazi,' 1 referred to fossils from that area as — three species of 

 Echinodermata, two forms of Ostrea, a Pecten, two corals, ' a worm 

 in the form of a Helios ' ; and on the surface Cardium edule. Xo 

 particular age was assigned to any of these organisms, although it 

 was recognized that the fundamental rock of the country was a 

 Tertiary limestone. 



The Archduke Ludwig Salvator, describing the Cave of Lethe, 

 east of Benghazi, observed that its walls were formed of ' Num- 

 mulitenkalk.' 2 



An interesting specimen of Nummulites, now in the British 

 Museum and formerly collected by Admiral Spratt, was referred to 

 by the late Prof. T. Rupert Jones, in his ' Catalogue of Fossil 

 Foraminifera in the British Museum (Natural History) ' 1882, 

 p. 45, as JVummidites perforata from Mersa Susa (an ancient 

 port of Cyrene), and he remarked that it had been obtained ' from 

 strata younger than the nummulitic bed of Crete.' 3 



Zittel, in the introduction to his great work on the Geology of 

 the Libyan Desert, stated that 



' In the neighbourhood of Siwah the coarse Miocene limestone is the latest 

 marine sediment of the Libyan Desert. Probably it extends northwards over 

 the Cyrenaican tableland. 1 (Palaeontographica, vol. xxx (1883) p. cxxxi.) 



i Q. J. G. S. vol. xxiii (1867) pp. 384-86. 



2 ' Yacht-Eeise in den Syrten, 1873 ' Prague, 1874, p. 52. 



3 This Cretan deposit is regarded at the present day as of Lutetian or 

 Middle Eocene age ; see A. de Lapparent, ' Traite de Greologie ' 5th ed. (1906) 

 p. 1530. 



