THE CRETACEOUS SYSTEM 327 



2. THE UMZAMBA GROUP. 1 



The larger and more interesting of the two, the Um- 

 zamba group, lies near the Natal boundary, stretching 

 from a point about three miles south-west of the Um- 

 tamvuna Biver, which is the limit between the two 

 Colonies, to near the Umtentu Eiver, a distance of some 

 twelve miles. The greatest width of the strip is not 

 more than about 700 yards, for the Table Mountain 

 sandstone crops out in the grass-covered ground at that 

 distance from the shore along part of the coast, else- 

 where it approaches the beach more closely and at each 

 end of the Cretaceous outcrops appears on the shore 

 itself. The actual contact of the Umzamba beds with 

 the Table Mountain series has not been observed ; it is 

 everywhere hidden by the sand that forms dunes behind 

 the beach and often covers up the Cretaceous rocks. The 

 Umzamba beds lie horizontally, and even where their 

 outcrops are very close to the nearest outcrop of Table 

 Mountain sandstone, as on the right bank of the Um- 

 zamba River about 300 yards from the mouth, they are 

 of the same nature as on the shore, and do not show 

 any tendency to become conglomeratic, as would be ex- 

 pected if the junction were an ordinary one of a beach 

 deposit with a shore. The Table Mountain series forms 

 rather high ground close behind the Umzamba beds, 

 rising some 300 feet above them within a short distance. 



1 The name Umtamvuna beds has been abandoned because the rocks 

 do not occur on that river. Descriptions of this group and the fossils 

 from it will be found in Bailey, Q. J. G. S., xi., p. 454; Griesbach, 

 Q. J. G. S., xxvii., p. 53 ; G. <7,, vi., p. 38 ; Woods, A, S, A. M., iv,, part 

 7 ; Chapman, A. S. A. M., iv., part 5. 



