﻿224 



DR. A. HOLMES OK THE TERTTARY 



[vol. lxxii, 



The geological sequence in Mozambique may be summarized as 

 follows : — 



Recent Deposits. Overlying drifts, lateritic deposits, 

 coral reefs, and raised beaches. 



Tertiary. 



Cretaceous. 



Pre-Cambrian 

 Complex. 



2. Volcanic rocks, 

 iozambique Li 

 Mochelia Conglomerate 



Post-Olis-ocene. 



1. Mozambique Limestone and 1 



> Oligocene 



3. Conducia and Monapo Beds. 

 2. Mount Meza Beds. 

 1. Fernao Velloso Beds. 



Upper Cretaceous. 

 Middle Cretaceous. 

 Lower Cretaceous. 



4. Pyroxenites. 



3. Granites and pegmatites. 



2. Gneisses, amphibolites, and eclogites. 



1. Schists and crystalline limestones. 



III. The Coastal Belt. 



The narroAV Coastal Belt is formed essentially of Mesozoic 

 deposits, and extends intermittently along the whole East African 

 coast, broken only where the sea has eaten away the sedimentary 

 formations and reached the more resistant rocks beyond. Through- 

 out the length of Mozambique, no sediments older than Cretaceous 

 are known along this zone, but on the north, in Portuguese 

 Nyasaland and in the German (1914) and British areas, Upper 

 Karoo and Jurassic formations are also found. 



In Mozambique the coastal zone varies in width up to 10 miles. 

 The shore itself is fringed with loosely-cemented coral-rocks and 

 raised beaches. The underlying sedimentary rocks extend almost 

 continuously from the Lurio in the north to Moginquale in the 

 south, and are nearly all of Cretaceous age. Mozambique Island 

 and the outlying parts of the adjoining mainland are unconformably 

 capped with Tertiary sediments, which were referred by Sadebeck 

 (1879) to the Upper Eocene or Oligocene. 



Mr. Wray has divided the Cretaceous formations into three 

 main groups, the succession of which, with their lithological 

 characters and distribution, is expressed in the following table : — 



Name. 



Age. 



Lithological Character. ■ Distribution. 



3. Conducia and Senonian. Limestones, calcareous Mokambo Bay to 



Monapo Beds. 



2. Mount Meza 

 Beds. 



shales and sandstones, the Mikati River. 

 I with a calcareous con- 

 glomerate at the base. 



Albian to Sandstones, often fel- Mount Meza and 

 Aptian. spathic.with calcareous ( the adjoining 

 bands. district. 



1. Fernao Velloso Neocomian. Alternating limestones South of Pernao 

 Beds. and shales. Velloso Harbour 



to Memba. 



