24 Annals of tlie South African Museum. 



traced is not evident from the table of sections given by Stow.* 

 There are, no doubt, minor differences, and local distribution accord- 

 ing to facies in the successive fossiliferous bands, which may be 

 more clearly revealed when the district comes to be mapped in 

 detail ; but there is certainly nothing so far-reaching in this respect 

 as to have formed grounds for the differences of view expressed, for 

 instance, by Tate, who ascribed an Oolitic age to the fauna, and 

 Neumayr, who referred these beds to the Neocomian.f 



The divergent conclusions arrived at by the earlier authors appear 

 rather to have resulted from the different interpretations put upon 

 the same peculiar association of forms when viewed in comparison 

 with the limited standards of European type. The principal difficulty 

 seems to have lain in the fact that none of the fossils could be cor- 

 rectly identified with those of formations studied in other regions, 

 and the facies of the fauna, taken as a whole, did not seem to show 

 such agreement with that of any known assemblage as to give it the 

 decided stamp which might serve to put the question of age beyond 

 dispute. This matter has been so frequently dealt with, and its 

 bearings are so well known, that it may seem superfluous to dwell 

 upon it here at any length ; but it may be useful to recapitulate 

 briefly the successive opinions expressed, and in some cases the 

 grounds upon which they were based, before proceeding to the more 

 thorough comparison of the fauna with its extra-European equiva- 

 lents which recent knowledge has rendered possible. 



I take this opportunity of expressing my indebtedness to Mr. 

 A. W. Rogers for the helpful manner in which he has furnished me 

 with information relating to the collections ; to Dr. A. Smith Wood- 

 ward, Mr. G. C. Crick, and Mr. E. B. Newton for facilitating 

 reference to literature and specimens in the British Museum 

 (Natural History) ; and to Mr. W. Rupert Jones for his ready 

 assistance during rny repeated examinations of the extensive collec- 

 tion of Uitenhage fossils in the museum of the Geological Society of 

 London. My best thanks are also due to Prof. J. W. Gregory 

 for examining a specimen of Thamnastrcsa submitted to him, and to 

 Mr. C. D. Sherborn for assistance in a few matters relating to 

 bibliography ; to Mr. G. W. Lamplugh, Mr. H. A. Allen, and Mr. H. 

 Woods, I am indebted for several useful suggestions. 



* Stow (1), fig. 3. See further remarks on this subject at the end of Section II. 

 of the present paper. 



f In this connection see Neumayr's remarks on Stow's work ; Holub and 

 Neumayr (1), p. 270, footnote 6 



