360 Albany Museum Records. 



in regard to the second, the European equivalent is a Devonian 

 fossil, the Australian equivalent is lower Carboniferous. We 

 shall not be far wrong therefore if we place the Witteberg beds in 

 an intermediate position at the top of the Devonian and bottom of 

 the Carboniferous. 



This result is imj)ortant because in the Bokkeveld beds we 

 find marine forms of life belonging to the lower Devonian ; then, 

 with no break in the conformability, we jump to shallow water 

 deposits containing fossils of upper Devonian or lower Carbonife- 

 rous age. The series of forms representing elsewhere the 

 middle and upper Devonian are wanting. May this not be 

 explained by supposing that after the lower marine Devonian 

 sediments were laid down, tbe ocean floor continued to sink till 

 it passed below the zone where sediments from land could be laid 

 down, that is to say, into abysmal depths ? The slow accumula- 

 tion of material in deep water would explain the missing out of 

 whole geological periods and yet would be in consonance with 

 perfect conformity. This seems to me to be a reasonable supposi- 

 tion and provides a case which the upholders of the theory of the 

 permanence of ocean basins say does not exist, namely, the 

 evidence of abysmal conditions in the rock strata. 



ZAPHRENTIS. 



Zaphre7itis zebra, nov. sp. 

 PI. VII., Fig. 12. 



Corallum simple, turbinate or elongate ; septa numerous, 

 increasing in two lateral zones so as to expand the theca 

 like a cup. Edge of theca raised, with septa projecting inwards, 

 alternately long and short. Wall or epitheca thin and folded, the 

 interseptal spaces shown as ribs on the outer surface. About 60 

 septa in the larger specimen. 



This crushed specimen shows the actual substance of the 

 coi-al replaced by earthy haematite, and the interior filled up with 

 hard red mud ; the outside is encrusted with yellow mud. 



Corals have been recorded from the Bokkeveld beds, from 



