FISH REMAINS IN ECCA SHALES, NEAR LADYSMITH. 227 



The Discovery of Fish-Remains in the Ecca 

 Shales, near Ladysmith. 



By 

 F. H. Hatcli, Ph.D., F.G.S. 



DuKiNG an examination of an occurrence of mineral phos- 

 phate on the Townlands of Ladysmith for my report to the 

 Government of Natal,^ I collected several specimens of 

 phosphate nodules at Intombi Camp^ which on being- broken 

 open were found to contain scales of fish and fragments of 

 bone which have been determined as Labyrinthodont. This 

 discovery appeared to me to be of importauce, since hitherto 

 the Ecca Shales had proved remarkably barren of fossils, and 

 on my return to England I handed the specimens to Dr. 

 Smith Woodward for determination. His report on the fish- 

 scales,, as well as one by Mr. E. A. Newell Arber on some 

 fragments of fossil-wood, are appended. Specimens of the 

 nodules containing fish-scales are exhibited in the collection 

 presented by me to the Natal Museum (see specimen No. 520). 



Fossil remains are found only rarely in the phosphate 

 nodules; usually all trace of organisms has disappeared, and 

 the tri-calcium phosphate is present as an amorphous mineral. 

 The phosphate nodules may, in fact, be compared in point of 

 origin to the flint nodules of the English Chalk formation, 

 where the silica of the flints was in the first place derived 

 fi'om the hard siliceous part of organisms, such as diatoms, 

 sponges, etc. 



' ' Report on the Mines and Mineral Resources of Natal (other than 

 Coal),' by F. H. Hatch, London, 1910, p. 102. 



