The wings vary in the width of the white marg- 
gins; and in the spots which are more or less 
distinct. 
Alfred Caruana Gatto. 
(to he continued). 
The Salt Mountain of Palestine. 
At the south end of the Dead Sea a salt moun- 
tain has been naturally formed, which attains a 
height of nearly 600 feet above the level of the 
sea, and which is about six miles long, and 
three-quarters of a mile broad. 
It runs along the shore line in some places 
extending to the very water’s edge. It is situated 
at the opposite end to that into which the Jordan 
discharges its waters; and the waters in its vici- 
nity are therefore much salter than are those at 
the northern extremity. 
Dow far the salts extend underground is not 
yet known; neither have we am means of ascer- 
taining its age, but Dr. S. Merrill states that in 
some places it is covered with overlying earthy 
deposits of evident antiquity, and of great 
thickness. 
The government adds very considerably toils 
revenue by causing the salt to be worked under 
their immediate supervision, and by retaining the 
exclusive right to the trade that is carried on with 
this commodity in different parts of Palestine. 
Dr. Merril tells us in a letter to the “Scientific 
American” that if Arabs, or the natives of the 
country were found getting salt from the Dead 
Sea, or from this mountain, that they would be at 
once arrested. The working of these salt deposits 
for foreign export would be the means of consi- 
derably increasing the prosperity of the country, 
but, unfortunately, at present the Turkish govern- 
ment will not sanction any project of the kind. 
Observations on the Geology of the 
Maltese Islands. 
' BY 
John H. Cooke. 
(continued). 
When we take into consideration the nature of 
the numerous and varied changes that the islands 
have undergone, it would be surprising indeed 
were not some evidences forthcoming to enable 
one to judge of the origin of the causes that had 
given rise to them. 
The area has been succ essively, the bed of an 
ocean, a part of a continent, an extensive bland, 
and now, in its latest phase, we see it as a group 
of islets situated in the middle of a great land- 
locked sea. » 
Nor has the history of its inhabitants been of 
a less varied nature. It is still a moot point as to 
whether the evidences, that are forthcoming, are 
sufficient to justify us in admitting that man was 
present in Malta during the Pleistocene age. 
Those that have been adduced, so far, are of a 
very fragmentary and inconclusive nature; (1) 
though it would seem that careful research may 
result in the obtaining of more definite informa- 
tion on the subject. 
Nor so, however, are the evidences of the occu- 
pation of .the islands by the forms of the brute, 
and of the vegetable creation during that period. 
The osseous breccias that clothe the southern 
slopes of the islands, and the contents of the 
numerous caves and fissures, afford evidences that 
prove that Malta was formerly the centre of an 
extensive and well watered country, on the banks 
of whose rivers and valleys there existed a flora 
and a fauna, that, at least, equalled that which 
now luxuriates in the basins of the Amazon and 
the La Platte. 
When the connection between Europe and Af- 
rica existed by way of Malta, a luxuriant vegeta- 
tion clothed the intermediate area, and an oppor- 
tunity was thus afforded to those types of the 
animal and vegetable kingdom, that then existed 
in the southern parts of Europe and the northern 
parts of Africa, to migrate from the one locality 
to the other, and to thoroughly establish them- 
selves. It was the great analogy, that was found 
to exist between the flora and the fauna of the 
two shores, that led Heer, the Swiss savant, to 
consider, not only that such a connection had for- 
merly existed, but also that it had prevailed for a 
considerable length of time. 
In Algeria, Morocco and Tunis as in Spain and 
Portugal, large numbers of plants grow that are 
identical; while of the 3000 plants that have been 
(1 ) Davy. “Observations on Malta)' voL I.p.IIL 
