(275) 



12. — The Cretaceous Fauna of Pondoland. — By Henry Woods, 

 M.A., P.G.S., University Lecturer in Palseozoology, Cam- 

 bridge. 



The Cretaceous fauna of Pondoland was first described by W. H. 

 Baily,* who regarded it as of the age of the Upper Green sand of 

 Blackdown, and pointed out its resemblance to the Cretaceous 

 fauna of Southern India, which had then been recently described by 

 Edward Forbes. 



Sixteen years later Mr. C. L. Griesbach f gave, in his paper " On 

 the Geology of Natal," some notes on the fossils of Pondoland, with 

 figures and brief descriptions of some additional species. He thought 

 that five faunas could be recognised in successive divisions of the 

 deposit, and the three uppermost of these he considered as probably 

 the equivalents of the Lower Greensand, the Upper Greensand, and 

 the White Chalk of England respectively. 



The Cretaceous beds of Pondoland, of which the total thickness 

 exposed is only about 20 feet, have been studied recently by the 

 officers of the Geological Survey.:]: After carefully collecting from 

 different horizons, they are unable to agree with Griesbach 's view 

 that five faunas are represented, since they find that " the greater 

 number of the species existed throughout the whole of the time 

 occupied by the deposition of the rocks." 



The account of the Pondoland fauna given below is based on the 

 collection made by the Geological Survey. I have also had the 

 great advantage of studying the collection formed by Mr. Griesbach, 

 now in the Hamburg Museum. For this privilege I am indebted to 

 the kindness of Professor Gottsche, who at one time hoped to give 

 a full account of the collection. ^J The fossils described by Baily 



• Description of some Cretaceous Fossils from South Africa; collected by 

 Captain Garden, of the 4.5th Regiment. Q.J.G.S., xi. (1855), pp. 454-465, 

 plates xi.-xiii. 



t Q.J.G.S., xxvii. (1871), pp. 60-70, plate iii. 



\ A. W. Rogers and E. H. L. Schwarz, Annual Report of the Geological Com- 

 mission, Cape of Good Hope, 1901 (1902), pp. 38-44. 



§ Zeitschr. d. deutschen geol. Gesellsch., xxxix. (1887), p. 6'2'2. 

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