58 Annals of the South African Museum. 



although the known evidence seems to be on the whole destructive 

 of Neumayr's view regarding the isolation of the Uitenhage fauna, 

 yet any attempt to reconstruct precisely the geographical relations 

 of the region under consideration in early Cretaceous times must 

 still remain purely within the realm of speculation. 



One point at any rate is clear, that the argument based upon the 

 sharp contrast between the Neocomian fauna of Cape Colony and 

 comparable occurrences situated on the African continent to the 

 north of the supposed separating ridge, can no longer be utilised. 

 We are now able to compare contemporaneous faunas in which, so 

 far as the lamellibranch element is concerned, the validity of the 

 comparison is not impaired by differences of facies due to local con- 

 ditions ; and the supposed contrast is no longer perceivable. The 

 apparently almost complete restriction of the Uitenhage cephalopods 

 to the southern district in Africa may still seem to require some 

 further explanation, but should scarcely occasion more surprise than 

 the fact that only one species from the Neocomian Belemnite-beds 

 of north-west Madagascar is included in the East African fauna 

 described by Miiller, although both inhabited the equatorial waters. 

 As a further example of the risk of making premature deductions 

 from the apparent dispersal of cephalopods, it may be noted that 

 not one of the cephalopod-genera of the Uitenhage area has been 

 recorded from the Pueyrrydon series in Patagonia, although the 

 occurrence of these forms there would be exactly in accord with 

 a distribution regulated by the principles upheld by Neumayr. The 

 evidence of the other Mollusca seems, indeed, to lend every support 

 to the view that a continuous shore-line extended between South 

 Africa and South America, and this idea has gained further 

 justification from the recent work of C. Burckhardt. 



This brings us to inquire whether the Uitenhage ammonitoids are 

 in reality so peculiarly restricted in their geographical distribution as 

 at first appears. It is certainly remarkable that no definite traces of 

 them have been found in the African equatorial regions," while close 

 allies are known from Western Europe and the Himalayas. Indeed, 

 it may be said that these cephalopods exhibit in the main a 

 distinctly " Middle European " facies, and thus at first sight 

 seem to lend support to Neumayr's distribution theory.! We 

 have seen that amongst the lamellibranchs, leaving out of account 



* A very badly preserved ammonite found at one of the localities visited by 

 Bornhardt has been referred to the genus Holcostephanus. Whether this indicates 

 the presence of Uitenhage forms, which appears not improbable, further collecting 

 alone may be expected to decide. t Neumayr (2). 



