Outlines of the Geology of Mozambique. 415 



groups or series are provisionally recognized. In descending order 

 they are : — 



3. Conducia Beds. 

 2. Mount Meza Beds. 

 1. Fernao Vellozo Beds. 

 Of these beds only the Conducia Beds^ have been hitherto noticed. 



The Eernao Yellozo Beds are admirably exposed in many coast 

 and inland sections from Memba southwards to the district around 

 Fernao Vellozo or Masasima harbour. A little south of the harbour, 

 near Chief M'shilipo's kraal, they consist of an alternating series of 

 limestones and shales, and in these we fortunately obtained a small 

 assemblage of fossils which show distinct Uitenhagian characters, and 

 conclusively determine the beds in question to be of jSTeocomian age. 



The second series, the Mount Meza Beds, consist predominantly of 

 sandstones with some calcareous bands. They form several flat-topped 

 hills in the neighbourhood of the coast, Mount Meza itself being over 

 1,000 feet above sea-level. Judging by the fact that they con- 

 formably succeed the Pernao Vellozo Beds, and also underlie the 

 Conducia Beds, they are in all probability of Aptian and Albian age. 

 An Aptian fauna along this coast has already been described by 

 Professor Kilian ^ from so near a locality as Delagoa Bay. 



The highest Cretaceous Series (3), the Conducia Beds, are well 

 exposed in Conducia Baj^ a few miles noi'th-west of Mozambique 

 Island, and a description of their fauna has been contributed by 

 Choflat^ to the Portuguese Geological Commission. ChofFat referred 

 these beds to the Upper Cretaceous, ranging from Vraconian to 

 Senonian, and he pointed out their close affinities with the Southern 

 Indian development (Ariyalur and Utatur stages). 



The discovery of these Cretaceous deposits along the Mozambique 

 coast, and exactly opposite the Island of Madagascar, shows that 

 probably the Indo-African land connexion had already been broken 

 in early Cretaceous times. '^ 



Above the Cretaceous, and resting with a slight unconformity on 

 them, conies a series of beds referred by Sadebeck^ to the Upper 

 Eocene or Oligocene. They have yielded some corals and Foraminifera. 

 They occur in two facies ; one a poorly consolidated limestone, and 

 the other a hard sandstone frequently conglomeratic. The limestones 

 on Mozambique Island weather in a peculiar manner, giving rise to 

 deep solution pits circular in outline. 



^ P. Choffat, " Contributions a la connaissance geologique des colonies 

 Portugaises de I'Afrique : Le Cretacique de Conducia": Comm. Serv. Geol. 

 Portugal, Lisboa, 1903. 



^ Kilian, " Sur la presence de I'etage Aptien dans le sud-est de I'Afrique " : 

 Compt. Eendus, cxxxv. No. 1, pp. 68-71, 1902, and Bull. Soe. Geol. France, 

 ser. rv, ii, p. 358, 1902. 



'^ P. Choffat, " Contributions a la connaissance geologique des colonies 

 Portugaises de I'Afrique: Le Cretacique de Conducia": Comm. Serv. Geol. 

 Portugal, Lisboa, 1903. 



■* For further discussion of this problem see especially F. L. Kitchin, 

 " Invertebrate Fauna of the Uitenhage Series," Annals South African Museum, 

 vol. vii, pt. ii, pp. 51-6, 1908. 



^ A. Sadebeck, " Geologie von Ost-Afrika " in Von der Decken's Reisen in 

 Ost-Afrika, Leipzig, 1879. 



