348 Albanij Museum Records. 



Spirifers in the centi'al, and the ovmite Phacops in the eastern out- 

 crops ; in the Witteberg beds, too, one can i)oint to a far greater 

 })revalence of plant remains in the east But in i-evievving the 

 evidence as a whole, and considering the fewness of the localities 

 from which fossils have been obtained, and the enormous tliick- 

 nesses and extent of strata that lie hid beneath the soil and debris, 

 I feel it unsafe to make any statement on the subject of either the 

 zones or the life provinces. It is impossible to compare condi- 

 tions of things in a country like South xVfi'ica with those obtaining 

 in Europe or America, because the opportunities for study are so 

 different. There the progress of civilisation has caused road and 

 lailway cuttings to be made in all directions, and the arts have 

 been the means of opening up innumerable quarries, all these 

 forming abundant exposures for collecting fossils. 



Owing to the limited funds available, it was at hrst intended 

 to issue the descriptions without illustrations, but the pen-and-ink 

 sketches made while I was working out the forms are here repro- 

 duced ; and although the method does not admit of the inclusion 

 of the minute details which lithogi-aphy allows of, it is hoped that 

 these reproductions will enalde readers to recognise the forms 

 portrayed. 



PLANTS. 



I have included the Witteberg plants in the Albany Museum 

 in this description of South African Devonian fossils, because I 

 find in them certain affinities with upper Devonian species, as 

 well as with lower Carboniferous. The Witteberg beds have been 

 usually classed as Carboniferous on account of their coming above 

 Devonian marine beds — the Bokkeveld beds — and below the 

 Dwyka series, which is thought to be Permian in age. The 

 question of the correlation of the Witteberg beds has recently 

 been made urgent by the publication by Prof. Emile Haug of 

 many paleeontological works on the Sahara ; there he finds 

 Devonian rocks of a distinctly American type, including the 



