NOTES AND QUERIES. 



137 



M. Hebert referred to the ^rell known discoveries of M. Perthes and the 

 labours of Mr. Prestwich, and others, resulting in the production of upwards 

 of a thousand implements from deposits certainly quaternary, characterized by 

 Elephas primigenms and Rhinoceros tichorimts. He denied that they had been 

 subsequently disturbed, described them as covered by a red diluvial clay, with 

 broken tlints usually unrolled, identical with the red diluvium of the neighbour- 

 hood of Paris, and that the brick-earth, or loess, was superimposed. He main- 

 tained tliat it is impossible that the flint implements could have been 

 introduced into their actual present position subsequently to the deposit of 

 the two last named beds. Doubtless the implements were not rolled as were 

 the bones. In all cases the axes lie under the double mantle of the red clay 

 and loess, showing beyond all question that they belong to the antecedent 

 state of thmgs. If then we admit with M. d'Archiac that the loess is the 

 result of a general deposit independent of the centres, whence the rolled 

 gravels with elephant bones have radiated ; that the great extension of Alpine 

 glaciers is subsequent in date to the loess, that the turbaries are more recent 

 still, we are obliged to conclude that the existence of man in the north of 

 Prance belongs to an epoch more ancient than the quaternary ! 



The identity of the brick -earth with the loess, the local chrracter of upper 

 gravels, requu'e careful consideration before we accept this as the true place of 

 the first-art stratum ; but in the present state of our knowledge it may be use- 

 ful to call attention to the sayings and doings of our neighbours. — S. ii. P. 



Heterostegina-bed.— I should be much obliged if you could let me know 

 which is the " Heterostegina-bed" at Malta mentioned in the paper read at the 

 meeting of the Geological Society, Jan. 4th, by Mr. T. R. Jones. — Yours truly, 

 P. W. HuTTON, Staff College, Aldershott. — In Capt. Spratt's notice of 

 the geology of Malta, &c., in the Geological Society's Proceedings, vol. iv., 

 p. 226 and p. 230, the "yellow sandstone" is described as being full of a "very 

 thin Nummulite," referred to also by Prof. Porbes as the " Le)/ticuUfes 

 complanatusj" It is this bed which is now known as the "Heterostegina-bed," 

 and Mr. Hupert Jones has favoured us with the following remarks on the 

 subject. 



" The thin Nummulite-like shell, found in the dark-yellow friable stone, is 

 not a Nummulite nor a LenticuUte. It belongs to the Heterostegina of 

 D'Orbiguy ; a genus which is related to Nummulina and to Operculina ; but 

 it has its chambers subdivided, and is not symmetrical in its growth. The 

 yellow sandstone is the second great stratum from the top of the Tertiary 

 series of beds at Malta, and is well seen at several places in that island and in 

 the cliffs at Uanella Bay, in Gozo. Besides the Heterostegina depressa, D'Orb., 

 this rock contains Glohigerina bnlloides, D'Orb., and a few other Poraminifers. 

 The Lenticulites coynplanatiis of Basterot (to which the Maltese fossil above 

 mentioned has been erroneously referred) being really a very thin Operculina, 

 the name " Lenticulites" (which is inapplicable in other cases also) is disused. 

 Operculina is a sub-genus of Nummulina. 



Dr. Wright has followed Spratt and Porbes in misnaming this Heterostegina 

 "Lenticulites complanatus'" (Ann. Nat. Hist. Qter., vol. xv., p. 103, pi. 7, f. 4.). 

 The latter name was given by Basterot to a large thin discoidal fossil Poranii- 

 nifer from Bordeaux, now Avell known as an Operculuia, similar to such as now 

 exist in the sea at the PhiRipiaes, Australia, and elsewhere. Operculina com- 

 planata, however, also occurs at Malta, for Lord Ducie has favoured the 

 writer with a fine specimen in a very hard white limestone from that island." 



On the Divisions of the Driet in Noeeolk and Suefolk. — "As 1 

 shall have frequent occasion to make use of the word diluvium," wrote the late 

 Dr. Buckland, " it may be necessary to premise that I apply it to those ex- 

 tensive and general deposits of superficial loam and gravel which appear to 

 VOL. III. s 



