TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION C. 605 



of the Stormberg — the Cave Sandstone, Red beds, Molteno beds, &c. — while the 

 base of the scarp and the foot hills are composed of the Beaufort madstones and 

 of the Ecca sandstones and shales, the Ecca sandstones carrying the coal resources 

 of the colony. The Dwyka Conglomerate forms the base of this system, the 

 underlying old rocks being frequently grooved and polished by ice-action. 



A big unconformity separates the Karroo rocks from the Table Mountain 

 sandstone, which has been eroded often to a comparatively thin bed of con- 

 glomerate, or even completely removed before the deposition of the Karroo 

 beds. It has, however, retained the horizontal position in which its beds were 

 first deposited, and forms several typical table mountains, as Table Mountain, 

 near Pietermaritzburg, Kranzkop on the Tugela, and Nkomo in Zululand. In 

 this respect it contrasts sharply with the underlying metamorphic schists and 

 quartzites of the Swaziland System, which are folded into well-marked anticline 

 and synclines, and almost invariably present a steeply inclined outcrop. These 

 metamorphic rocks comprise quartzites, ferruginous ja.speroid rocks, conglo- 

 merates, and mica, chlorite, kyanite, and hornblende schists, and are in places 

 invaded by intrusions of granite and permeated by veins of aplite and pegmatite. 

 These old rocks, which are probably equivalent to the Archaean, appear wherever 

 the rivers have deeply incised their valleys, and as this can only occur in the 

 lower part of the river-courses, the outcrops are confined to the easterly portion 

 of the colony — for instance, in Zululand in the valley of the Tugela, in the 

 gorges of the Buffalo, in the canon-like valley of the Msuzi, and in the 

 Umhlatuzi and Umfuti valleys. 



But between these valleys, even in Zululand, great piles of Karroo strata 

 still remain, as, for instance, those forming the Umsinga. Oudeni, and Kala 

 Mountains, where the horizontality of the stratification is brought into strong 

 relief by the presence of great sills of dolerite. 



Although the base of the Karroo occurs near Pietermaritzburg at an elevation 

 of 3,000 feet above the sea, Ecca shales and Dwyka conglomerate are also found 

 at sea-level on the coast at and south of Durban. This can only be explained, as 

 pointed out by Suess. by the assumption of the existence of a great N. and S. 

 fault, the train of which lies considerably east. of the present scarp of the 

 Drackensberg. The latter has been, and is still being, pushed to the west by 

 the erosion of the Natal rivers, which practically all take their source on its 

 slopes and flow eastward to the Indian Ocean. 



FR1DA Y, SEPTEMBER 2. 

 Joint Meeting with Section E. — See p. 652. 



MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 5. 



The following Report and Papers were read : — 



1. Report of the Seismolocjieal Committee. — See Reports, p. 44. 







2. The Geolocfof Cyyrenaica. By Professor J. W. Gregory, D.Sc, F.R.S. 



3. An Unclescribed Fossil from the Chipping Norton Limestone. 

 By Marmaduke Odling. 



1910. R R 



