208 Prof. Siuinnerton — Dreikanter Periods in S. A^otts. 



those regions, a wide strip between Aliwal N^orth and Fort Beaufort, 

 and the district round Beaufort West, of which I have a personal 

 knowledge. It is, I hope, fairly satisfactory, but the country between 

 Graaf Reinet, Beaufort West, Victoria West, and Colesberg has as yet 

 yielded so very few fossils as to be in the last degree speculative. 

 The Free State fossils are so few and so badly localized that that 

 province is practically a terra incognita. The most interesting 

 feature is tlie occurrence on Harrismith commonage oi Li/strosaiiriis, 

 a large Dicynodon, and typical Deinosaurs of the Red Beds of the 

 Stormberg Series, a fact which seems to indicate plainly a thinning 

 out of the Cynognatlms zone and Molteno Beds, and that overlap 

 of the Stormberg Beds into older rocks which we know to have 

 occurred in that direction. There is evidence of the occurrence of 

 Cisticephalus and Lystrosauriis beds in l^atal. 



The map brings out clearly the fact that the Karroo rocks lie 

 in a basin formed by two shallow synclines whose axes, running 

 approximately east and west and north and south, meet in the 

 Transkei, and that they dip at an extremely low angle to the east and 

 the south respectively. 



I have in connexion with this paper to thank the Trustees of the 

 Percy Sladen Fund, who assisted me to visit South Africa, many 

 farmers in Cape Colony too numerous to mention separately, and 

 particularly my friends Dr. R. Broom and the Rev. J. H. AVhaits, 

 whose knowledge is invaluable. 



III. — Periods of Dreikanter Formation in South ISTotts. 



By Professor H. H. Swinnerton, D.Sc, F.G.S., F.Z.S., 



University College, Nottingham. 



(PLATE XVI.) 

 FN the summer of 1911 I discovered numerous wind- worn stones 

 L in a gTavel-pit near to Ramsdale, and situated at the side of the 

 Old North Road 6 miles out of Nottingham. Samples of these were 

 exhibited at the Geological Society's conversazione in 1912. During 

 the next few months a trench for the water-main from the Derwent 

 valley to Nottingham was opened along this road, and passed for 

 a distance of over a mile through similar gravels, which in one place 

 were at least 10 feet thick. Throughout this distance 'dreikanter' 

 were common in the top 18 inches of soil and subsoil. 



These wind-worn stones varied in size from small boulders 8 inches 

 long to small pebbles. The majority were of quartzite and had 

 assumed those forms usually associated with the term ' di'eikanter '. 

 Pebbles of less homogeneous constitution, such as grit, vein quartz, 

 and various igneous rocks, were not as a rule facetted, but had that 

 wavy, pitted, or undercut type of polished surface which is the 

 characteristic effect of the sand-blast action of the wind and of 

 insolation. 



Further investigation shows that these wind-worn stones are not 

 confined to the locality of Ramsdale, but are widely distributed over 

 the whole district, on both Keuper and Bunter outcrops, from beyond 

 Oxton in the north to Wilford Hill and Clifton in the south. No 



