TERTIARY AND RECENT DEPOSITS 371 



though where possible a chronological arrangement will 

 also be adopted. 



1. THE KNYSNA SERIES. l 



To the north-east of Knysna, in the area almost en- 

 tirely covered by forest, there are thick deposits of sand 

 containing layers of clay and lignite filling hollows in 

 an old surface formed by the Table Mountain series. 

 The lignite and the sand contain large masses of coni- 

 ferous wood and some leaves. Though no definitely 

 determinable fossils have been found in these beds the 

 specimens obtained are quite different from any known 

 from the Uitenhage series, and the incoherent nature 

 of the deposits makes it very probable that they are of 

 later age than the Cretaceous. On the other hand, the 

 fact that they fill such deep hollows in the Table 

 Mountain series, and have themselves been trenched to 

 their base by the existing rivers, makes it impossible to 

 regard them as recent, i.e., as belonging to the time 

 when South Africa was occupied by the present fauna 

 and flora. It is likely, therefore, that the Knysna beds 

 are of Tertiary age. The beds are exposed in railway 

 cuttings, drives cut into the sides of kloofs, and shafts. 

 Occasionally horizontal lamination can be detected in 

 the fine-grained beds, but usually the sand is strongly 

 false bedded or lies in thick layers without divisional 

 planes ; these portions have the appearance of wind- 

 borne sand deposited on the land. The sand is red or 

 yellow in colour in the upper part of the series, but 

 lower down it becomes brown owing to the presence of 



'(?. C., xiii. 

 24 * 



