NOTKS AND yUEHIICS. 
137 
M. Ilcbert rcfcrn^d to the well known discoveries of M. I'ertlics and the 
labours of Mr. I'rostwich, and others, resultin<? in the production of upwards 
of a tiiousand iuii)lcnients from deposits certainly quatcu-nary, characterized by 
EIrphas priiiiig('iiiii.'< iinA llliiiwceroii fir/ioriiuts. lie denied that they had been 
subsequently disturbed, described them as covered by a red diluvial clay, with 
broken flints usually unrolled, identical with the red diluvium of the neighbour- 
hood of Paris, and that the brick-earth, or loess, was sn])crimposed. He main- 
tained that it is inipossible that the tlint implements could liave 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. lu all cases the axes lie under tiie double mantle of the red clay 
and loess, showing beyond all question that they belong to the antecedent 
state of things. 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 Alpme 
glaciers is subsequent in date to the loess, that the tm-baries are more recent 
still, we are oljUged to conclude that the existence of man in the north of 
France belongs to an epoch more ancient than the quaternary ! 
The identity of the brick -earth with the loess, the local chrracter of upper 
gravels, require 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. R. 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 NummuHte," referred to also by Prof. Porbes as the " Lenticuliks 
complaiMtiis." It is this bed which is now known as the "Heterostegina-bed," 
and Mr. Rupert Jones has favoui-ed us with the foUowmg remarks on the 
subject. 
" The thin Nuramulite-like shell, foimd in the dark-yellow friable stone, is 
not a Nummidite nor a Lenticulite. It belongs to the Heterostogiua of 
D'Orbigny ; a genus which is related to Nummidiua and to Opcrculiua ; 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 cHtfs at Rauella Bay, iii Gozo. Besides the Heterodfigina depressa, D'Orb., 
this rock contains Glohigerina bidloidcs, D'Orl)., and a few other Poraminifers. 
The Lenticidites complamtus of Basterot (to which the Maltese fossil above 
mentioned has been erroneously referred) being really a very thin Operculina, 
the name " Lenticvdites" (which is iuappHcable in other cases also) is disused. 
0])erculina is a sub-genus of Nummijliua. 
Dr. Wright has followed Spratt and Porbes in misnaming this Heterostegina 
" Leidiculiteis cowplctnatus" (Ami. Nat. Hist. Qter., vol. xv., p. 103, pi. 7, f. 4.). 
The latter name was given by Basterot to a large thin discoidal fossil Porami- 
nifer from Bordeaux, now well known as an Operculina, similar to such as now 
exist in the sea at the PhiUipiues, Australia, and elsewhere. OpercuJina 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 Dkift in Norfolk and Suffolk. — "Asl 
shall have frequent occasion to make use of the word diluvium," wrote the late 
Dr. Bucklaud, " it may be necessary to premise that I apply it to those ex- 
tensive and general deposits of superficial loam and gravel wliich appear to 
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