THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
ft 
10 to. 15 feet in height. Fringing the slopes 
that lie beneath these escapraents, there is a bed 
of yellowish grey loam. The deposit may be 
traced for some distance down the valley; but in 
some places, owing to the denuding action of se- 
veral small streams that have cut their way 
through it, it will be found to occur in patches 
only. It is situated at a height of from 20 to 30 
feet above the present bed of the valley; and it 
extends east and west for a distance of about 30 
yards, and north and south for about 15 yards. 
It is lenticular in 
shape, but breaks 
off abruptly at the 
lower side, and an 
escarpment is thus 
formed which 
show’s the maxi- 
mum thickness of 
the bed to be about 
7 feet, while at 
the extremities it 
thins out to 18 in- 
ches and a foot. 
Its upper surface 
is extremely hard; 
and, like the sur- 
faces of the sur- 
rounding strata, it 
has been much 
honeycombed and 
otherwise weather- 
worn. 
The materials of 
which it is compo- 
sed are very uni 
form, both in gene- 
ral appearance and 
in arrangement. They consist for the most part 
of fine detrital matter, the product, apparently, 
of the erosive action of atmospheric, forces on the 
Upper Coralline, the Greensands, and the Glo- 
bigerina beds. 
The deposit is divisible into two well marked 
zones, the most persistent features of each of 
which are the irregularity of its divisional planes, 
and its non crystalline character. 
The top zone consists of an impure, imperfectly 
formed limestone of a whitish colour: and it is 
usually overlain by a thin stalagmitic layer of 
about one inch, or less, in thickness. A chemical 
analysis shewed a sample of this part of the bed 
to consist of 80 % of carbonate of Lime, the re- 
maining 10 % being made up of quartz, glauconite 
& alumina. 
In many parts of the bed, minute tabular per 
forations are noticeable traversing tha rock in 
all directions. 
They vary considerably both in length and in 
; the diameter of the bore. 
None of them 
exceed x \- of an inch. 
in diameter, while 1 
many are muclh 
less. 
These capillary 
tubes often piay 
an important parts 
in determining the 
direction in which 
the rock cleaves. 
They are, howe- 
ver, not persistent 
throughout the for- 
mation, and are 
more numerous in 
some parts of it 
■ than in others. 
This upper divi- 
sion 'is very fossi- 
liferons, but, owing 
to the imperfect 
character of the 
rock, the mamma- 
lian remains that 
occur are seldom 
found in a perfect 
condition; and even when found entire, they a r e 
often so rotten that they crumble to pieces: finder 
the slightest pressure. 
Besides large quantities of land-shells and mam- 
malian remains, the teeth and vertebrae of sharks, 
echinoderms, several species of corals, an d other 
representatives of a marine fauna occur. 
All of these latter have, however, been .derived 
from the Globigerina Limestone. 
The following is a list of the organic re mains 
that I found in this bed. 
Map of the south-western extremity of Gozo. 
— _ _ _ _ — _ Faults. 
Pleistocene beds. 
