124 REPORTS ON THE STATE OP SCIENCE. 



could be recommended for adoption among the colonies of South Africa ; 

 (2) that the method of procedure should be: — 



(a) Preliminary conferences between the members of the Committee 

 resident in each colony, in order that they may report as to the nomen- 

 clature and classification best suited to their colony ; 



(b) The circulation of these reports for consideration by all the 

 members of the Committee ; 



(c) The submission of all the points at issue in such a form that each 

 member of the Committee can vote upon them by post ; and 



(d) The preparation of a report stating the opinions of the Com- 

 mittee as thus expressed, and, if possible, to recommend a scheme of 

 correlation and a terminology for adoption by all the South African 

 colonies. 



After receipt of the various preliminary reports a series of questions 

 was drawn up by the Chairman and submitted to the members of the 

 Committee for a postal vote. 



The results of this vote are tabulated in Appendix I. 



I. The Nomenclature of the pre-Devonian Rocks. 



The Major Subdivisions. 



The first urgent problem concerns the nomenclature and classifica- 

 tion of the pre-Devonian rocks. 



Some of the South African members of the Committee, especially 

 those for Cape Colony, regard the treatment of this subject as prema- 

 ture. But if no attempt be made to deal with it, there will inevitably 

 develop a varied nomenclature which will be confusing to geologists in 

 other countries when referring to South African work, and may lead in 

 South Africa to the permanent adoption of rival names. 



The oldest known fossiliferous rocks in South Africa are the 

 Devonian rocks known as the Cape System. Below this system is a 

 vast series of rocks which are unfossiliferous. The only evidence as to 

 their age is lithological and stratigraphical. 



These rocks — excluding the unaltered igneous rocks — include: — 



(a) A great series of unfossiliferous sedimentary rocks, quartzites, 

 conglomerates, ' shales,' and sericitic schists; 



(b) A series of foliated rocks, including mica schists, hornblende 

 schists, and gneisses; the rocks are partly of igneous and partly of 

 sedimentary origin. 



1. The rocks of the Rand are the most important members of the 

 sedimentary group, and opinion is practically unanimous that the rocks 

 of the Rand be called the Witwatersrand System. 



2. There is a majority of nine to six in favour of calling the second 

 group — the highly crystalline schists earlier than the Witwatersrand 

 System and occurring, for example, in Swaziland and at Barberton — 

 the Swaziland System, and for adopting that name for the basal 

 crystalline schists of all South Africa. This term is favoured by all 

 the representatives of the Transvaal and Natal, by Dr. Molengraaff 



