1871.] STOW TAAL-EIVER DIAM:OJSrD-GRA.VELS. 3 



after previously heating them gently, with a varnish made of shellac 

 dissolved in nearly absolute alcohol. He considered it probable that 

 a meteoric mass falling with immense velocity might so shatter itself 

 as to cause some of its fragments to enclose fragments of basalt, and 

 even to impregnate the neighbouring mass of basalt with minute 

 particles of the metallic iron ; but he considered the question of 

 meteoric origin could only be decided by examining the same mass 

 of basalt at some greater distance from the stones themselves, so as 

 to prove whether the presence of such metallic iron was actually 

 characteristic of the entire mass of the rock. 



Prof. Ramsat referred to the general nature of meteorites and to 

 their mineral relationship to the planetary bodies, and remarked 

 that, supposing the earth to have in part an elementary metallic 

 core, erujjtive igneous matter might occasionally bring native iron 

 to the surface. 



Mr. Daiwtrhe mentioned that he had been present at the ex- 

 humation of the Melbourne meteorite, and that at that time there 

 was little or no trace of any formation of ferrous chloride, the ex- 

 ternal crust on the meteorite being not above -^j inch in thickness. 



2. On the Diamond -GRAVELS of the Vaal Eiver, Sotjth Africa. 

 By George W. Stow, Esq., of Queenstown, Cape Colony. 



(Communicated, with Notes and Descriptions of the Specimens, by Prof T. 

 Rupert Jones, F.Gr.S.*) 



[With a Map, PL I.] 



Contents. 



Geographical Features. (Map, Ph I.) 



Occurrence and geological place of the Diamonds. 



Section I. Natal Kopje ; Cawood's Hope ; Gong-gong: fig. 1. 



Section II. The deposits at Klip Drift and Pniel. 



Section III. Hebron and Diamondia : figs. 2, and 3. 



Du Toit's Pan. 



Inferences. 



Place of origin of the Drifts : fig. 4. 



Eocks and fossils of the Upper Drainage-area. 



Origin of the Gravels. 



Postscript. 



Appendix. Description of the Specimens, by Prof. T. R. Jones, F.G.S. 



Geographical features. — In travelling from the colony to the dia- 

 mond-fields on the banks of the Vaal, the last shales similar to those 

 of the Great Stormberg basin are met with at a short distance from 



* In his letter of July 6th, 1871, requesting that I would name the specimens 

 which he sent with this paper, Mr. Stow alludes to my paper " On the Dia- 

 mond Fields of South Africa" in the ' Geological Magazine' for February 1871, 

 as instigating him to collect exact information and verified specimens from trust- 

 worthy observers, with whom he was in frequent communication, without treating 

 of any previously published accounts of the district. How far in all essential 

 points the actual sections now brought forward by Mr. Stow substantiate the 



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