Andrew Leith Adams

“ The genus Pecten, so plentiful in the Maltese Miocene, is represented in the Sand bed by four species, also met with in the Upper Limestone. Of the Brachiopoda, Terebratula sinuosa and Megerlia truncata are common to both formations, besides nine species of Echinodermata, whilst nearly all the Polyzoa, Cœlcnterata, and Protozoa seem undistinguishable.
III. The Marl bed varies very much in thickness, thinning out for a depth of upwards of a hundred feet to scarcely an indication of its presence. It is the most perishable of the beds, and is being rapidly denuded. ”

“ The other tooth is still more imperfect, only one of the anterior and middle nipples remaining. It differs, however, from the former crown; for whilst its anterior ridges have also been quite recently broken off, the surface of the tooth, where the two companion ridges of those still extant should be, is firmly incrusted with the matrix, showing that the enamel had been denuded prior to or during the imbedment of the tooth.
Both molars have the bases of their crowns where the fangs originate also covered with the characteristic calcareous sandstone of the islands. ”

“ The Sharks' remains are the most varied and numerous of all the vertebrates of the Maltese Miocene. Their teeth have found their way into almost every public collection in Europe, and continue to furnish employment to persons who make it their business to dispose of them to travellers. With the exception of the Upper Lime- stone, they have been found in all the beds. From a large experience in collecting and determining the Maltese species, I have been enabled to furnish the following Table of their stratigraphical distribution. ”

“ Spondylus quinquecostatus is common. Casts of Conus, Venus, Cardium, Turritella, Haliotis, Murex, Fusus, and other genera are not uncommon [10] .
The Echinodermata amount to 25 species, of which ten seem peculiar, whilst Clypeaster alius, G. marginatus, and Cidaris melitensis are among the most common species, and they are likewise met with in the Sand bed.
II. The Sand bed is the most variable of all the formations, both as relates to its mineral composition and its organic remains. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The uppermost portion of the bed is composed of a pale grey freestone, soft and easily worked. Traversing this bed is a band of nodules, for the most part rounded and loosely arranged: it often thins out to a mere indication of a bed; indeed it would seem to be sometimes wanting. This, the First Nodule seam, is generally characterized by the abundance of casts of what have been supposed to be a Pteropod allied to Hyalea, and a Vaginella undistinguishable from V. depressa. ”

“ It varies in colour and composition, from a dark blue or drab colour to a light brown or grey; some sorts form a fair plastic clay, being both stiff and tenacious, whilst the light-coloured run in the form of horizontal bands. ”

“ Wright examined the cutting made with a knife in the rock to extract the specimen. ↑ Notes of a Naturalist, p. 269. ↑ Vana Speculazione, Tab. i.-iii.: Naples, 1670. ↑ Proc. Geol. Soc. London, vol. iv. p. 230. ↑ Op. cit. p. 134. ↑ Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxii. p. 595. ↑ Notes of a Naturalist in the Nile Valley and Malta, p. 268. ↑ Palæontological Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 304. ↑ Professor Owen, as far back as 1843, recognized bones, "apparently of a Manatee," in Admiral Spratt's collections from the Sand bed (Proc. Geol. Soc. London, vol. iv. p. 230) . ↑ Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxii. p. ”