Papers read at the British Assooiation at Montreal. 477 



30 to 70 miles broad, and are known as the Malmeshiiry Beds (Dunn). 

 These and the beds next in succession (the Bokkeveid Beds, 3) are 

 overlain unconformably by the Table- Mountain Sandstone (4), 4000 (?) 

 feet thick, which forms patches and extensive ridges, and possibly 

 dips over No, 3, to join No. 5, the Witteherg Beds. Nos. 3 and 5, 

 together about 2100 feet thick, lie parallel, and form a concentric 

 inner band. The former contains Devonian fossils ; the latter is 

 probably of Carboniferous Age (with Lepidodendron, etc.), and forms 

 the Wittebergen and Zwartebergen in the Cape District, and the 

 Zuurbergen in Eastern Province. 



The Ecca Beds (6) come next; Lower Series, 800 feet; Con- 

 glomerate Beds (Dwyka), 500 feet; Upper Series, 2700 feet; 

 conformable with No. 5 ; in the south much folded, and in undula- 

 tions throughout, until it passes under the next set of beds, No. 7, 

 in some places 50 miles to the north. The Ecca Beds have fossil 

 wood and plant remains in abundance here and there, but these have 

 not been cleai-ly determined. This series has not been well defined 

 until lately, and even now its limits are not full}' determined. It 

 includes the Karoo Desert, and therefore takes in the lowest members 

 of Bain's great Karoo Formation, Nos. 12 and 14 of his map (1856), 

 or the "Ecca," "Koonap," and part of the "Beaufort" Beds of 

 Jones (1867). The series No. 7, horizontal and unconformable on 

 the Ecca Beds at the Camdeboo and elsewhere, retains the name of 

 Karoo Sandstones ; and after a width of about 40 miles is conform- 

 ably surmounted by a set of somewhat similar Beds (8) in the 

 Stormberg ; and thus No, 7 should be regarded as the Loioer, and 

 No. 8 the Upper Karoo Sandstones. The latter end off northwards in 

 the Draakensberg, Natal, Orange-Eree- State, the Transvaal, and 

 Zululand, with the still horizontal Cave Sandstone and associated beds. 

 The Lower Karoo Sandstones probably thin away northwards beneath 

 the others. Below the Karoo Sandstones, and dying out southwards 

 near the Camdeboo (Prof. Green), are the Shales (7*'), which con- 

 stitute the country around Kimberley, described as the " Olive Shales 

 of the Karoo Formation," by G. W. Stow. These die out northward 

 against the old rocks of Griqualand-West and the Transvaal. They 

 contain Glacial conglomerates in their lowest (earliest) beds, in 

 Griqualand-West, just as the Ecca series has its great Glacial con- 

 glomerate (the Dwyka Conglomerate in No. 6) in its lowest portion. 

 As the Stormberg Beds (8) lie upon the Olive or Kimberley Shales (7*) 

 in the Orange-Free-State, the Lower Karoo Sandstones (7) must die 

 out northwards. The Kimberley Shales contain some Reptilian bones 

 and plant remains, and some coal on the Vaal ; the Karoo Sandstones 

 are rich with Dicynodont and other Reptilian bones, and have some 

 Fish remains ; and their upper portion (Stormberg) contains Ferns 

 and Cycadeous leaves, and some seams of Coal. A fossil mammal 

 also has been fonnd in this series. Throughout its range the Karoo 

 Series is traversed with igneous dykes. 



Limestones and sandstones (9) with fossils of nearly pure Jurassic, 

 but with some of Cretaceous type, occur unconformably in the 

 Eastern Province. Their fossil Flora is like that of the Stormberg 



