THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
89 
It would submerge a large part of the Nasciar 
plain, and would add to the length of St. George's 
Creek, St. Julians bay, Marsa Scala, and Marsa 
Scirocco Bay. 
All of these bear evident traces of the for- 
mer presence of the sea. Nor are they the 
only evidences that testify to the oscillations 
to which the islands have been subjected. A 
never ending contest has been, and still is going 
on between the land and ffie waters around 
them, in which each has alternately gained the 
mastery; but in the latest phase, the land has, 
bit by bit, gradually asserted itself and has 
won back the territories of which it has been 
despoiled. 
The protracted nature of the struggle is plainly 
shown by the craggy and cavernous condition of 
the sea cliffs, that abound along the southern 
coasts of the islands. 
At Magira, Ras-el-Kaus, Ahmar, and Ghain Tof- 
fiha, flat, raised, marginal ledges skirt the shore, 
situated at varying heights above the sea level, and 
on some of these, as at Toffiha, are insulated, table- 
shaped stacks of upper limestone, which, being 
sufficiently hard to enable them to successfully 
withstand the constant attacks, that wore dovm 
the softer material around them, novr stand alone, 
bearing unequivocal testimony to the power of the 
elements that had shaped them, and to the dura- 
tion of the ages that must have elapsed ere they 
were reared to their present positions. 
The Faults : — 
The relationship that exists between the physi- 
cal character, and the internal structure of the 
Maltese Islands is well illustrated in the valleys 
and hills to which reference has just been made. 
We have seen that the strata does not preserve 
that uniform horizontality that it had when depo- 
sited, but that in many localities it takes a slightly 
undulatory form, a change of position that was 
probably caused by the lateral pressure which was 
exerted when the faults of the islands were 
formed. 
The elevations and valleys that lie to the north 
of the Great Fault and in the vicinity of Ghain | 
Toffiha, Redum Majesa, Fom-ir-rieh, and Melleha 
afford some of the best illustrations of the effects 
of these compressive forces. 
The strata of several hills in these areas show 
evidences of dipping inwards, that is, they lie in 
slight synclinal curves. 
It is to this condition of the strata that the 
combes and valleys in the district appear to owe 
their existence. The Northern coast, too, abounds 
with similar examples, especially the strata that 
lies on either side of Melleha Bay, St. Paul’s Bay 
and the Straits of Frioul. 
South of the Malta Grand Fault these synclinal 
curves are not so well marked, though here and 
there along the southern cliffs of Malta examples 
are to be met with. Thus Benghisa Gap owes its 
origin to the synclinal bending of the rocks in its 
course, and the cliffs under Maddaiena chapel 
exhibit further similar evidences. 
Between the surface contour of northern and 
southern Malta there is however a marked con 
trast, and compeared with the north, the strata of 
the southern area are practically horizontal save 
for a slight north-easterly dip. This contrast is 
due primarily to the oscillations of level to which 
the islands have been subjected, and which have 
caused the depression of the whole of the area that 
lies between the northern side of the Grand 
Fault of Malta and the southern side of that of 
Gozo. 
The Grand Fault or principal fault of Malta 
extends from the Maddaiena Bay on the we. 
coast to Fom-ir-rieh on the east coast. 
At Fom-ir-rieh the beds of the Upper Coralline 
Limestone, and the Marl on the northern side of 
the fault are opposed oil the south by vertical 
cliffs of Lower Limestone, that attain a height of 
nearly 350 feet. The faces of both sides of the 
fault are covered abundantly with well defined 
examples of “slickensides”, the depth of the scor- 
ings of which, sufficiently attest to the enormous 
grinding processes to which the rocks were sub- 
jected when the depression took place. At Naxaro. 
the cliffs of the fault are but 150 feet in height, 
but from, thence they increase until Maddaiena is 
reached where they end abruptly at a height of 
about 350 feet above the sea level. 
Standing on the summit of the escarpment in 
the vicinity of Naxaro and taking either Citta 
Vecchia or Chemmuna as points for observation, 
the inclination of the beds to the south may be 
traced in an east-south-easterly direction until 
