THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
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Observations on the Geology of the 
Maltese Islands, 
by John H. Cooke. 
• ( con tin ued ) 
These forces of compression seem to have been 
the original causes that gave a general undulatory 
outline to certain portions of the strata, and 
thus by determining the position of the islands 5 
principal watersheds, they prepared the way for 
the formation of the hills and valleys. 
But though they were the origin, they were 
not the agents of their formation. 
The ruggedness of 
surface contour, and 
the wholesale denu- 
dation that now cha- 
racterizes the scenery 
of Gozo, and north- 
western Malta, owe 
their origin to other 
and less ostentatious 
forces, which, if more 
dilatory in their me- 
thods were yet none 
the less effective in 
their operations, 
A few' walks along 
the coasts, and the 
hill-sides will bring 
vividly before the 
mind of the observer 
the active manner in 
which the three hench- 
men of ‘Nature-— Fire, 
Air, and Water — have 
been at work in disin- 
tegrating the rock sur- 
faces and moulding the islands' contour. The faces 
of the cliffs and faults, the sides of the hills and 
valleys, alike tell the same tale and point to 
the silent though effective manner in which 
Nature brings her forces to bear, in order to 
attain her end. The barren and denuded cliffs 
of jlied-el-Asel, and Dueira, attest to the 
irresistible power of the waves, that once laved 
their water-worn and pkolas-bored sides, while 
the fantastic shapes into which the honey- 
combed and fretted rock .-ur faces are even now 
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being wrought, indicate that, though far beyond 
the reach of the waves, they are still subjected 
to the attacks of other foes equally powerful 
and untiring. 
The soft Globigerina Limestone and the 
softer sand and marl beds, are particular!} 
susceptible to this constant wear and tear of the 
atmosphere; and the consequence is, that where- 
ever these beds are found to predominate, 
there the soil of the country is more abundant 
and the scenery is more diversified. 
The long-continued dry weather of the sum - 
mer months, followed 
by the moisture 
ladened w nds from 
Africa, have played an 
important part in this 
work of erosion. 
Fissures, that at first 
appeared as mere 
cracks in the strata, 
have been gradually 
enlarged by the disin- 
tegration of their sides, 
and the rains of win- 
ter, entering the chan- 
nels that have been 
thus prepared, have 
formed torrents, the 
waters of which have 
greatly facilitated the 
work of destruction. 
In this manner the 
anticlinals and fissures 
have been so extended 
and enlarged as to 
have lost their origi- 
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nal character, and to have assumed the charac- 
teristics of gorges and valleys. 
The contour of the surface* of both islands has 
been thus moulded and so rapidly does the work of 
erosion even now proceed, that, it is only by the 
watchful industry of the husbandman in banking 
up the sides of the valleys with debris, and pro- 
tecting the accumulated soil with stone walls 
of considerable thickness, that the superficial 
w T aste is retarded sufficiently to allow him to 
till and grow in the soil such of the neces- 
