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A rare Victorian overview of Malta

Excerpt from Malta, Under the Phenicians, Knights, and English

A sea voyage is either beneficial or injurious to health, according to the way in which the voyagers treat themselves. It is desirable to spend as much time as possible on deck in the open air, and to walk about for at least several hours daily. If travelling in winter, or in a rough sea, for any length of time, goloshes are of great service for protecting the feet from the water, which is sure to be often lying about on the deck, either from being dashed over by the waves, or from being thrown down by the sailors while washing it; and which of course takes a long time to dry in cloudy weather. A more than ordinary tendency to indulge in sleep in the mornings is often felt on shipboard; and, if this is resisted, it will be found a material source of health and comfort afterwards.

SECTION V.—-GEOLOGY OF MALTA. The group of islands formed by Malta, Gozo, and Cumino, belongs to the Tertiary formation, and to the Eocene subdivision of it. These three were evidently at one time a single island, or at least an unseparated mass of land, and composed of four distinct kinds of rock, forming four horizontal layers, one on top of the other. The uppermost of these was (and still is) a light-coloured coralline limestone. Underneath this lies a thick bed of tenacious marl. Next comes a sandstone formation, which is the principal rock of these islands. At the bottom of all is a deep bed of crystalline limestone. At one time there was evidently a continuous block of land formed by these four, and probably having the coral limestone spread very evenly over its whole surface. But in the course of ages a grand disturbance took place in that part of the earth’s crust, and all the middle of this block sank abruptly down. The consequence was that two portions were depressed so low that the sea flowed completely over, and formed the central portion into the island of Cumino, whilst the two adjacent parts of Malta and Gozo became at the same time the depressed extremities of other two islands. The visitor to Malta, on reaching the midst of the island, and looking westward, finds himself standing on a spot where the Benjemma hills form a bold ridge about seven hundred feet high. From their western side he sees that all that end of Malta has sunk down bodily, leaving the Valletta or populous district on an elevated block eastward. The low island of Cumino still keeps itself above the surrounding waters. The end of Gozo nearest to it lies also similarly low