10 
THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURAL ST 
MARINE 
Two teeth (Oxyrhina hastilis), ) , 
One tooth (Oxyrhina xipodon), f mUch wate ™ ora 
Roth of these species are characteristic of Beds 
2. 3 and. 4. 
Water w&rn specimens of Flabellum, Zoantha- 
rias, and Corallines 
One echiuoderm (Brissus sp). 
All of these had evidently, been derived from 
Tied IV. 
L AND SHELLS 
Heir/ vermiculata. (Common) 
He\ix aspersa, „ 
dbelix sp, ? Very common. 
Helix candissima. 
Helix sp. ? 
Cyclostoma sp. ? 
Bulimus decollatus. 
Bulimus sp. ? 
Mammalia : — 
Teeth, bones, and horn cores of ruminants. 
These were sent to the British museum : 
but in consequence of their bad state of preserv- 
ation they were pronounced to be undeter- 
minable. 
Fqraminifera 
In the washings of about two pounds of the : 
material, the following species were observed. ; 
Orbulina universa, d’Orb. 
Globigerina bulloides. 
Cristellaria sp. ? 
Clavulina cylindrica. Hantken. 
Truncatulina ungeriana. d'Orb. 
Nodosaria sp.? several broken. 
N. „ oblique-stria ta, Reuss, broken. 
Many fragments of others. 
These also have, apparently, been derived from 
Beds II. III. & IV. * 
Of the land shells the most numerous are those 
belonging to the Helicidce. The specimens are j 
generally in an excellent state of preservation; in 
some cases, even the original colour of the bands 
is preserved. The most numerous are the shells 
of a minute Helix sp. ? 
Next in descending order occurs a layer of yel- 
lowish-grey loamy earth, but the transition between 
* Notes on the Malta Marl by J, II. Cooke “ II 
JNaturalista Maltese ” April 1891 , 
it and the overlying limestone is so gradual, as to 
render it a matter oi considerable difficulty to de- 
termine where the one ends and the other begins. 
This loam is non-plastic and is very homoge- 
neous. Being of a loose texture it easily disinte- * 
grates; and thus large portions are constantly 
breaking away and strewing the slopes with 
their debris. 
Like the overlying limestone, this loam abounds 
in fossil landshells; but no mammalian remains 
appear to be present. 
Water-worn, pebbles of all shapes and sizes 
occur interspersed throughout every part of the 
formation; but though they are more numerous 
in the loam than in the indurated rock above it, 
they are, in the aggregate, much smaller. 
An examination of a number of these pebbles 
shows that they have been derived from the three 
great limestone formations of the islands, (Beds 
1. IV. & V.) in approximately the following pro- 
portions : — 
Bed I. Upper Limestone 10 to 15 % 
Bed IV. Globigerina Limestone 50 to 70 % 
Bed V. Lower Limestone 20 to 30 % 
Black Limestone 10 to 15 % 
All of these pebbles are much harder than the 
rocks from which they have been derived; and, 
when broken, they usually present the appearance 
of being surrounded by a hard external ring of rock 
of a semicrystalline character, within which is 
encased a nucleus of limestone that is similar in 
every respect to the beds that are in the imme- 
diate vicinity. 
This change in the external part of the pebble 
is apparently due to the infiltration of limewater, 
“the lime of which has been deposited in the 
interstices of the stone in consequence of the 
evaporation of the water; and thus the stone has 
Teen rendered more compact and of a closer tex- 
ture than when the water was first absorbed in it. 
The same phenomenon is observable whereever 
the Limestone beds of the Maltese series crop 
out as a surface deposit. Another feature of this 
Pleistocene formation is the extraordinary quan- 
tity of black limestone pebbles that abound in 
Notwithstanding a diligent search in the 
district around, I was unable to discover any 
traces of a formation that possessed the same 
