Reviews — Geology of the Transvaal. 183 



would tell him that the English Coal-measures, including the Mill- 

 stone Grit at their base, are of Upper Carboniferous age, nor is there 

 any reason to doubt that the Frau co-Belgian coals are practically of 

 the same age. There may be some coals of Lower Carboniferous age 

 in the Scotch measures, but even this is not universally conceded. 

 Moreover, it is not usual to recognize Middle Carboniferous in the 

 European classification. The point does not, of course, affect Indian 

 geology. 



The marine facies {h) of this group, as it occurs in the Salt Eange, 

 Himalayas, etc., is next dealt with, and the author mentions the 

 discovery of Gangamopteris in the Zewan Beds of Kashmir, to which 

 allusion has already been made in the preceding review. Then follows 

 an account of the Indian equivalents of the Triassic, Jurassic, and 

 Lower Cretaceous; this is also in duplicate, viz., («) Gondwana, 

 (b) Marine. Next in succession comes the Upper Cretaceous, the 

 Eocene, the Pegu or Mekran (Flysch) system (Oligocene and Lower 

 Miocene), the Sivalik system, and lastly the Pleistocene (Quaternary 

 Era). A table of geological formations in the Indian Empire com- 

 pletes the work. AY. H. H. 



IV. GliOLOGT OF THE TrANSVAAL. 



Tkansvaal Mines Department. Report of the Geological Survey 

 for 1905. pp. 1-114, 26 plates, and 5 maps. Pretoria, 1906. 

 Price 7s. &d. — Report of the Geological Survey for 1906. 

 pp. 1-140, 30 plates, and 7 maps. Pretoria, 1907. Price 7s. Qcl. 



~\\ EMORY chronicles success, but is happily not so mindful of 

 llX failure. If it were not so ordained few past workers in African 

 stratigraphy, after a perusal of these Reports of the Transvaal 

 Geological Survey, would be able to retain that strong conviction 

 of infallibility so dear to the possessor. 



It is scarcely twenty years ago since even the bare outline of the 

 geology of the Transvaal was to all intents unknown. jSTowadays 

 our knowledge of the stratigraphy of the country assumes a stable 

 form, and the geological formations stand revealed in something like 

 order. But in the interim between the work of the early pioneers 

 and these, the latest achievements of an organised survey, what 

 a kaleidoscopic view has been presented to the student. 



Transvaal stratigraphy, we have read, was of the simplest. It was 

 complex. The Witwatersrand Beds were older than the Pretoria 

 Granites ; they were newer : the junction between the two was 

 a faulted one ; it was a natural one : the Witwatersrand Beds were 

 Devonian, were Silurian, were Cambrian, were Archaean. Out of 

 chaos came order. If mists still obscure the dawn of the Transvaal 

 rock-succession it is not for the want of effort on the part of the staff 

 of the Transvaal Geological Survey, whose enthusiastic labours have 

 resulted in the discovery of ineradicable landmarks situated toward 

 the region in which the dawn will assuredly break. 



The Reports for 1906-7 determine the following rock-succession for 

 the Transvaal, commencing with the newest formation : — 



