2 GEOLOGICAL MEMOIRS. 



rifer Sandstone, of whicli the Spirifer macropterus is the typical shell) 

 was still reckoned as part of the Silurian System. Since that time, 

 however, there is more and more proof that these beds should not be 

 separated from the limestones and schists resting upon them, and 

 that they have but very few species in common with the Silurian 

 System, and those altogether of local occurrence ; it was of much im- 

 portance, therefore, to investigate the character of this fossiliferous 

 rock of South xlfrica somewhat more closely. If indeed all these 

 fossils really occur in one bed, there would be typical fossils of the 

 Lower Silurian rocks (Calymene Tristani) occurring together with 

 some of the Middle Silurian {Calymene Blumenbachii) and some of 

 the lower part of the Rhenish System {Spirifer macropterus) — a cir- 

 cumstance altogether without analogy. 



In 1842 Professor Krauss, of Stuttgard, made a report to the 

 Naturalists' Association at Mayence on the fossils he had collected 

 during his travels in South Africa, the scientific results of which are 

 so valuable, especially in a geological point of view. The majority 

 of these fossils belonged to the Lower Cretaceous Formation, only a 

 few to the palaeozoic rocks. These Lower Greensand fossils Prof. 

 Krauss has since then fully described and figured*; of the palaeozoic 

 fossils, however, he has given no details. On account of the researches 

 in the study of the palaeozoic rocks and fossils of Nassau and their 

 analogues in other countries, undertaken in company with my brother 

 some years since, and some of the results of which have been laid be- 

 fore the public in " the systematic description and illustration of the 

 fossils of the Rhenish System in Nassau f," I was induced to ask Prof. 

 Krauss to communicate the palaeozoic fossils which he had collected. 

 He replied to my request in the most friendly manner, and at the 

 same time supplied me with the following notes on the subject : — 



" Unfortunately I cannot speak with certainty as to the locality of 

 some, and indeed of the finest of the fossils, as they were not collected 

 by myself, but given to me. I was informed that fine Trilobites were 

 found in the Cedar Bergen, to the north of Cape Town, and at Kok- 

 man's [Cogman's] Kloof, in the Swellendam District. I was not on 

 the western coast. That however Brachiopods also occur in the 

 south-eastern part of the colony, is shown by specimen No. 45, from 

 Kromme River, near Palmiet River, in the Swellendam District. Grey- 

 wacke and clay-slate prevail throughout the plains and valleys of these 

 districts, especially in Swellendam ; whilst the mountain-ranges con- 

 sist of variegated sandstone. In these plains are found Crinoidal 

 joints. Limestone (No. 57) with schaalstein I found only in the 

 Camgo Bergen, George District." 



Of the localities here mentioned, the Cedar Bergen, to the west, 

 and Plattenberg Bay, to the south-east of the Cape, lie about 120 



* Nova Acta Acad. Cses. Leopold. Carol. Nat. Cur. 1850, vol. xxii. part 2. p. 442 

 et seq. pi. 47-50. See also Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. vii. part 2. Miscall, p. 120 

 et seq. — [Transl.] 



t Guido und Fridolin Sandberger's Systematischen Beschreibung und Abbildung 

 der Versteinerungen des Rheinischen Schichten-Systems in Nassau ; mit einer 

 kurzgefassten Geognosie dieses Gebietes. Wiesbaden, 4to. 



