56 Annals of the South African Museum. 



south was not situated in close proximity to the present African 

 continent. On this point nothing definite can at present be said, 

 and it must be admitted that recent advances in our knowledge of 

 the Mesozoic rocks in Madagascar and on the east coast of Africa can 

 only serve as a warning against premature speculation on such a 

 subject. As regards Jurassic deposits, we now know that, contrary 

 to formerly held belief, these are not confined to the north-west 

 coast region of Madagascar, for strata of Oxfordian age have been 

 shown to be present in the south-west part of the island, in the 

 basin of the Eiver Isakondry, east of Tullear.* Professor Douville 

 considers that in these deposits the contrast in faunistic and litho- 

 logical facies to the strata of corresponding age in the north-west of 

 the island may be accounted for by different conditions of sedimen- 

 tation, and is not to be ascribed to deposition in separate basins, f 

 As remarked on a previous page, deposits which may perhaps 

 be equivalent or partly equivalent to the Uitenhage Series, 

 also occur in the Isakondry basin. Prof. Douville has given 

 brief notices of the fossils found in these beds by Lieutenant 

 Boutonnet, and has drawn attention to the occurrence here of a 

 large Trigonia which, he says, recalls the Trigonia of the Oomia 

 beds in Cutch and the Uitenhage beds in South Africa. Associated 

 with this is a shell which closely resembles Exogyra imbricata 

 Krauss (referred to by Prof. Douvill6 under the generic name 

 Pycnodonta).l The same region in Madagascar has furnished a 

 Cenomanian fauna which is said to show relations to the corre- 

 sponding faunas both of Europe and Southern India. Concerning 

 the conditions at a later period, the discovery of fossiliferous 

 Senonian deposits at Fanivelona and Marohita on the east coast 

 of Madagascar is very significant. The fossils found on the Eiver 

 Sakaleou, 10 km. from the coast and 30 km. north of Mahela, 

 are stated by Prof. Boule to include forms which show clear rela- 

 tionship to the fauna of Ariyalur type in Southern India and also to 

 the Senonian of Baluchistan. || Some of Prof. Boule's remarks on 

 this subject are as follows : " Hitherto it has been admitted that the 

 eastern coast of Madagascar is lacking in all sedimentary deposits of 

 the Secondary era, and this belief has played an important role in 

 the theories expressed by various scientists ; Oldham, Neumayr, 

 Suess, Kossmat, etc., on the former distribution of land and sea and 

 concerning the existence, during the Secondary era, of a continent 



* Boule (2), p. 131. f Douvill^ (3), p. 435. 



I Douvilte (2), p. 388; Douville" (4), p. 215; Lemoine (1), p. 176. 



Boule (1), p. 184. || Boule (2), pp. 132, 133. 



