302 THE KNYSNA BASIN 



In the Gamtoos Valley (Humansdorp) there are con- 

 glomerates and sandstones like those of Enon and the 

 Zwartkops Eiver. Along the left bank of the valley 

 below the railway bridge, and also in the valley of the 

 Loerie Kiver, there are conglomerates and grey sandy 

 clays with thin lenticular layers of lignite and small 

 lumps of fossil resin. These rocks are very like those 

 of the Wood beds of the Bezuidenhout and Witte 

 Kivers, and some of the fossil plants are common to 

 both areas. 



In Knysna there are three basin-like areas of quart- 

 zites, sandstones, conglomerates and clay, belonging to 

 the Uitenhage series ; the pebbles are mostly of quart- 

 zite derived from the neighbouring hills and mountains 

 made of the Table Mountain series. They occupy deep 

 valleys cut out of the Gape formation, and are them- 

 selves cut through by the coast-line. Near the village 

 of Knysna these beds are over 600 feet thick; the 

 boulders in the conglomerate are often of large size, in 

 places they average a foot in diameter. 



On the right bank of the Knysna estuary at Brenton 

 marine beds occur at sea level ; the lowest beds seen 

 are shelly conglomerates containing Ostrea, Trigonia ro- 

 gersi, and fragments of other molluscs ; above these come 

 fifteen feet of grey clays with limestone nodules in 

 which there have been found Nautilus, Belemnites, Acan- 

 thodisous, Trigonia holubi (?), Cidaris spines, stem joints of 

 Pentacrinus and Ptyohomya complicata. Perna, Meretrix 

 and other shells not yet named occur in the clays, but 

 they are in a decomposed state and it is very difficult to 

 remove them from the rock. These beds lie at a lower 



