392 D. M. S. Watson — The Beaufort Beds, South Africa. 



"We have therefore in the stratified and unstratified beds something 

 of the same kind of difference of fauna that there is between Matthew's 

 river-channel and flood-plain types of deposits. 



The position in which skeletons are found is of interest. I know 

 the position of seven skeletons of Pariasaurus as when found. In all 

 cases the animal, which is a typical land-type, lay with its back 

 upwards and its limbs still articulated ; one skeleton that I collected 

 lay prone, with its forelegs symmetrically disposed, the humeri at 

 right angles to the body, and the forearms and hands stretched 

 forward parallel to it. The ribs were naturally disposed, and the 

 two femora lay forward in contact with the body, with the legs 

 stretched out sideways. The whole skeleton, except for the skull, 

 which had been weathered out, was absolutely complete, and looked 

 as if the animal had died quietly, and been covered up without the 

 slightest disturbance by brown dust. 



A skeleton of Procolophon, only about 25 cm. long, lies absolutely 

 complete, with every bone articulated, in the position dead lizards 

 usually assume, with the hind-limbs stretched backwards along the 

 tail and the soles of the feet inward. Had the Beaufort Beds been 

 deposited in a lake, the places where these skeletons were found 

 would have been more than a hundred miles from its shore ; is it 

 conceivable that they could have been transported this distance and 

 then deposited in the exact position in which they died ? 



The extreme fineness of all the sediments implies that the agent 

 which deposited them was incapable of moving anything larger than 

 a small sand-grain ; is it conceivable that it could have carried along 

 the huge bones of Pariasaurus and the Deinocephalia ? 



Had the Beaufort Beds been deposited in a huge lake, we should 

 expect to find very finely bedded shales full of plants, shells, 

 and fishes, and containing occasional scattered bones ; instead we 

 find great masses of unstratified rocks with many sets of associated 

 bones, and only very rarely, and then in stratified beds, fishes and 

 plants. 



The whole series of facts adduced above appear to me to be quite 

 inexplicable on any lake theory of their origin, but receive a ready 

 explanation if we suppose the deposits to have been laid down on 

 land largely by wind-action, though also to some extent in small lakes 

 or ponds, and perhaps wide and impersistent rivers. I think that it 

 is not improbable that the curious cornstonesmay have had something 

 to do with an efflorescence of calcareous matter similar to that which 

 is now common in the Karroo. 



It may perhaps be interesting to compare the great unbedded 

 masses of mudstone with loess, which they resemble in the fact that 

 their constituent particles are, in the sections I have at present 

 examined, always angular, a common feature in fine wind-borne 

 material. 



In conclusion, I have to express ray thanks to the Percy Sladen 

 Trustees who assisted me to visit South Africa, and to many gentlemen 

 there whose advice and assistance were of great service to me. I wish 

 specially to thank Dr. B. Broom, Mr. D. V. Kannemeyer, and the 

 Bev. Mr. Whaits. 



