390 LATERITE 



although these are broken and therefore shorter than 

 they were originally, is preserved in the South African 

 Museum ; it came from the Modder River, forty feet 

 below the surface. 



In 1906 l the discovery of teeth of Mastodon, sp., Equus 

 zebra, Hippopotamus amphibius, var. robustus (Fraas), and 

 Damaliscus, sp. (allied to Bontebok), in the gravels of the 

 Vaal River near Barkly West, was made known by Prof. 

 Beck ; though the fossils are fragmentary they prove 

 the occurrence of Mastodon, which was not known before 

 from any place nearer the Cape than Egypt. From 

 the occurrence of the Mastodon, Drs. Beck and Fraas 

 placed the beds in the Pleistocene. 



4. LATEEITE. 



In many parts of the southern and western coast 

 districts there are layers of ferruginous rock resting 

 either immediately upon the slates, granite or other 

 rock of the vicinity, or with the intervention of a few 

 feet of sandy clay. The underlying rock is usually con- 

 siderably weathered, and sometimes bleached by the 

 loss of its colouring matter, which seems to have been 

 transferred to the ferruginous layer. The latter varies 

 very greatly within short distances. It is usually a 

 hard lumpy-looking rock, with innumerable small and 

 irregular channels lined with a red-brown or yellow 

 material. In places the hydrated sesquioxide of iron, 

 limonite, is so free from sand and clay that it might be 

 used as an ore ; but generally there is a large quantity 



1 G. M., 1906, p. 49, and E. Fraas, Zeitsch. d. Deutsch. Geol. Gesellsch., 

 1907, p. 232. 



