THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
169 
The variations in the range of the temperature 
extended from 56° Fah. in January to82 , 5°Fah. in 
August. No rain fell during the months of July 
and August; and during May, June, July, August, 
and September the total number of days upon 
which rain fell was but 9, and then it averaged but 
0T85 inches per month for the five months. 
The greatest range of the thermometer was on 
June 6th. when it was 35'9° Fah. 
The total rainfall for the year was 17*2 inches a 
result that closely approximated to the average 
for the previous five years which is recorded as 
being 17.6 inches. The total number of miles of 
wind that passed over the islands also followed the 
normal curve, 82,648 miles being indicated against 
an average per year of 83,144 miles for the period 
extending from 1886 — 1890. 
The Maltse Fossil Echinoidea. 
The Maltese Fossil Echinoidea and their evidence 
on the corellation of the Maltese Rocks by J. W. 
Gregory B.Sc., F.Z.S. of the British Museum 
(Nat. Hist.), communicated to the Royal Society 
of Edinburgh by Dr. John Murray. 
In the year 1855 a paper on the Fossil Ec-hino- 
derms of the Maltese Islands was written by Mr. 
T. Wright and published in the Ann. Mag. Nat. 
Hist; and again in 1864 another paper on the 
same subject was published in the Quart. Journ. 
Geo. Soc. with additional notes by Dr. Leith 
Adams. 
The great progress that has been made of late 
years in the study of the allied continental faunas 
has rendered a revision of the Maltese Fossils 
desirable and at the suggestion of Dr. John 
Murray who visited the islands in 1889 — 1890, 
Mr. J. W. Gregoryof the British Museum under- 
took the work and has just published the result 
of his investigations in a memoir bearing the 
above title. From an examination of Dr. Wright’s 
types, and of collections lent by Earl Ducie, Sir 
A. Geikie, Dr. Woodward F.R.S. and Mr. J.H. 
Cooke the author records 46 species in all, of 
which. 23 are peculiar to the Maltese Islands, and 
14 are new. 
The following is a list of the new species, the 
majority of which were found in the “ Cooke 
Collection. ” 
Species 
"h 
O 
3 
Up. Cor. 
Limestone 
CO 
c 
c3 
CO 
3 
cu 
CD 
© 
Clay 
i 
Clobigcrina 
Limestone 
g o 
o g 
o 3 
s! 
A r+ 
r' r+ 
0,3 
i-3gl 
Cidaris oligocenous 
Greg 
X 
Echinus tortonicus 
Greg 
X 
• 
„ tongrianus 
Greg 
X 
Heteroclypeus hemi- 
sphmricus 
Greg 
X 
X 
„ subpentagonalis 
Greg 
X 
Breynella equizonata 
Greg 
Echinolampas man- 
zoni 
Greg 
X 
„ posterolatus 
Greg 
X 
Hemiaster vadosus 
Greg 
X 
Pericomus corangui- 
num 
Greg 
X 
Brissus depressus 
Greg 
X 
Metalia melitensis 
Greg 
X 
Sarsella duncani 
Greg 
X 
„ anteroalta 
Greg 
X 
Though, this proportion of pecular forms is very 
high, he assures us that all of them are distinct 
species and that the differences between them and. 
their nearest allies in the beds of the surrounding 
areas, are well marked. The same feature is no- 
ticeable in Corsica where, out of 45 species, 21 are 
found in that island only, and again in Tuscany 
where M. de Loriol found 8 new species, 2 only of 
which are known to occur elsewhere. This loca- 
lization of distinct species in such limited areas as 
Malta, Tuscany, and Corsica the author considers 
to be due to local subsidences by which basins 
were formed that were separated from one another 
by shallow waters. 
The difficulties in the way of correlating the 
Maltese beds he admits are great on account of 
the distance at which the islands are situated 
from the mainland, and owing to the want of 
knowledge of the island invertebrata for, with 
the exception of the echinoidea and the foramini- 
fera, little or nothing has yet been done in this 
direction. He does not accept Dr. Wright’s evi- 
dence as many specimens from Egypt and Sicily 
seem to have been incorporated in the Maltese 
collection, and many errors in specific determina- 
tions and geologic horizons have necessarily arisen, 
A table showing the sequence of the Maltese 
Rocks is then given, (see Med: Nat: No. 6 1891), 
and the evidences afforded by the Echinoids are 
summed up. 
Comparisons are drawn between the Maltese 
rocks and those of the Tongrian division of the 
Calabrian formations, and similar deposits in 
France. 
The characteristic urchin of the Tongrian is 
Scutella striatula. Marc, de Serr. and specimens 
of this species are found in enormous quantities 
in the upper division of the Malta Lower Coralline 
Limestone. Echinus tongrianus. Greg, which is 
