[Plate XXV.]
The well-deserved reputation maintained by the Maltese Islands in connexion with their fossil fauna has been increased by a discovery lately made by my distinguished friend Mr. C. A. Wright, F.L.S. In a collection of animal remains he has lately forwarded to me from the Miocene beds of the islands, among other interesting relics I find two molars of Mastodon. The finding of Proboscideans in the rock-strata is of especial concern, and cannot prove otherwise than suggestive with reference to the historical geology of the deposits. I propose therefore, in the first place, to epitomize the main facts relating to the structure and stratigraphical arrangement of the beds and their characteristic fossils, considering especially how far there is evidence of any of the fauna having been derived from older formations. In the second place, I will enumerate all the Vertebrata hitherto discovered in the Miocene beds. The Invertebrata have been carefully described or named by Forbes[1], Wright[2], Davidson[3], Rupert Jones[4], Martin Duncan[5], and Woodward[6]. As described in a previous paper[7], Maltese formations are divisible into (1) the Upper Limestone, (2) Sand bed, (3) Marl, (4) Calcareous Sandstone, (5) Lower Limestone; all of which are conformable.
I. The Upper Limestone attains its greatest depth in the island of Comino, which is composed of it entirely, attaining a thickness of about 250 feet above the sea-level. It is the surface-formation along the western portion of Malta and the highlands of Gozo; but I doubt if its original thickness is preserved anywhere. Indications of more recent beds are seen in blocks of weathered limestone known as the Gozo marble, which are seen strewing the valley eastward of the light-house on the northern shore, and in fragments of a black marble or limestone which strew the sides and summits of the Gozo hills[8]. Bike all the other beds, it has been extensively
- ↑ Proc. Geol. Soc. vol. iv. p. 230.
- ↑ Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 2, vol. xv.; Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xx. p. 474.
- ↑ Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 3, vol. xiv.; & Geol. Mag. 1864.
- ↑ Geologist, April 1864, & Geol. Mag. vol. i. p. 102.
- ↑ Geol. Mag. vol. i. p. 97.
- ↑ Report Brit. Assoc. 1872, p. 325. Dr. Woodward is engaged in working out the Crustacea collected by me in the Maltese Islands.
- ↑ Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xx. p. 470. See also Spratt, Proceed. Geol. Soc. vol. iv. p. 225. The geological map appended to the author's memoir on the elephants of Malta in the Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. ix. pl. xxii. maybe referred to with advantage.
- ↑ A fragment of this limestone, examined by Professor Rupert Jones, F.R.S., showed Amphisteginæ and ossicles of Asteroidea. There can, I believe, be little doubt that these fragments have no connexion whatever with any of the existent formations of the islands. (Geol. Mag. vol. iii. p. 152.)
