10 S. &. EMMONS 
A. H. Green, who visited South Africa in 1882 for the pur- 
pose of examining the coal-bearing formations, speaks of it as a 
great mass of breccia and conglomerate, in which the fragments 
are largely granite with some quartzite of varying character and 
very coarse-grained in places. He considers the volcanic origin 
that had been suggested for it by no means certain, and remarks 
that the size and regularity of the pebbles suggest the action of 
ice and that some of the pebbles observed by him had scratches 
resembling glacial scratches. On weighing the evidence, how- 
ever, he concludes that it was a coarse shingle formed along a 
receding shore line. 
He considers that there is a great unconformity between the 
Ecca beds and the overlying Kimberley shales, which he observed 
at one point overlapping the upturned edges of the former; he 
thought to recognize a basement conglomerate at the bottom of 
the Kimberley shales, which might have been confounded with 
the Dwyka conglomerate. He is inclined to regard the Karoo 
formation above the Ecca beds as of fresh water origin. Others 
have regarded the fossil evidence as in favor of a lacustrine origin 
for the whole series. 
Cape formation.—The beds included under this head are inter- 
mediate in lithological character and in degree of deformation, 
as well as in stratigraphical position, between the Swasi-schists 
and the Karoo formation. They consist of sandstones, con- 
glomerates and shales, and in some regions of dolomitic lime- 
stones. As yet they have proved entirely barren of fossils. 
They extend over the southern, middle and western parts of the 
Transvaal. According to Hatch the long range of the Drakens- 
berg consists of these beds, and thus they probably extend to 
the Cape Colony where they are represented by the Table 
mountain sandstones and the shales, sandstones and quartzites of 
the Bokkeveldt beds. The age of the latter by fossil evidence 
most nearly corresponds to the European Devonian or Lower 
Carboniferous. 
Within this formation name are comprised several series of 
rocks of very great aggregate thickness, with regard to whose 
