Yol.  49.] 
MAELS  AND  CLAYS  OF  THE  MALTESE  ISLANDS. 
117 
8.  The  Maels  and  Clays  of  the  Maltese  Islands.  By  John  H. 
Cooke,  Esq.,  B.Sc.,  E.G.S.  (Bead  November  23rd,  1892.) 
Page 
I.  Introduction .  117 
II.  Physical  Features  and  General  Distribution  of  the  Strata .  118 
III.  Lithological  and  Mineralogical  Characters  of  the  Strata .  124 
IY.  The  Organic  Remains . .  125 
I.  Inteodttction. 
In  the  year  1843  the  late  Admiral  Spratt  published  a  brief  notice  on 
the  above  subject,  and  a  few  years  afterwards  the  late  Prof.  Gulia 
and  Capt.  Button 1  alluded  to  the  Marls  and  Clays  in  their  sketches 
of  Maltese  geology.  The  late  Prof.  Leith  Adams  published  in  1870 
a  short  account  of  them  in  his  4  Notes  of  a  Naturalist,’  but  the 
amount  of  information  that  he  gives  as  to  the  nature  of  the  beds 
and  of  their  fossil  contents  is  neither  very  extensive  nor  very  exact. 
In  1874  the  Islands  were  visited  by  Thos.  Fuchs,  of  the  Imperial 
Geological  Museum  of  Vienna,  and  by  him  the  first  attempt  was  made 
to  correlate  the  Maltese  formations  with  those  of  Central  Europe. 
In  the  first  of  the  two  pamphlets  on  the  subject  that  he  published 
he  tells  us  that  he  was  inclined  to  consider  the  Maltese  Marls 
as  being  analogous  to  the  4  Badner  Tegel  ’  of  the  Vienna  Basin ;  but 
two  years  later,  after  having  examined  the  marls  of  Bologna  and 
compared  their  fossil  contents  with  those  of  the  Maltese  beds,  he 
changed  his  opinion  and  referred  them  to  the  Austrian.  Schlier. 
In  1889-90  Dr.  John  Murray,  of  Edinburgh,  visited  the  Islands; 
and  in  the  paper 2 *  which  was  published  on  his  return  to  Scotland 
he  gave  the  first  detailed  account  that  had  so  far  appeared  of  the 
nature  and  constitution  of  the  Maltese  rocks.  His  descriptions 
were,  however,  exclusively  lithological ;  and,  excepting  the  list  of 
122  species  of  foraminifera  which  is  appended  to  the  report  on  the 
Maltese  Marls,  no  information  is  given  either  as  to  the  stratigraphy 
or  palaeontology  of  this  particular  formation. 
Before  Dr.  Murray’s  arrival  I  had  already  devoted  a  considerable 
amount  of  attention  to  the  Marls  and  Clays ;  and  owing  to  the  kind 
encouragement  which  I  received  from  him  I  continued  my  investi¬ 
gations  after  his  departure,  with  the  result  that  I  have  been  able  to 
add  largely  to  our  knowledge  of  the  fossil  fauna  and  to  gather 
together  a  number  of  important  facts  bearing  on  the  geological 
history  of  the  Maltese  Islands.  I  am  under  great  obligations  to 
Prof.  Capellini  and  Dr.  Simonelli  for  the  interest  they  have  shown 
in  my  work  and  for  the  valuable  assistance  they  have  rendered  me 
in  determining  the  organic  remains  found  in  the  strata. 
1  See  Geol.  Mag.  for  1866,  pp.  145-152,  pis.  viii.  &  ix. 
2  4  The  Maltese  Islands,  with  special  reference  to  their  Geological  Structure,’ 
Scot.  Geogr.  Mag.  yol.  vi.  (1890)  p.  449. 
