1870.] GBEY SOUTH-AFEICAN SPECIMENS. 51 



No. 4. This was forwarded to the author by a friend, who found 

 it on his farm, at the southern margin of the Stormberg, a few 

 miles south of the outcrop of the coal there. 



No. 5. This coal is from Mr. H. J. Baillie's best coal at Andries's 

 Nek. Dr. Grey states that some lignite occurs with it, and that 

 some of the coal near by is hard and anthracitic. The specimen was 

 taken not far from the surface ; and Dr. Grey observes that this coal 

 does not aU burn very satisfactorily; but some of it gives out a moderate 

 amount of heat, flaming for a limited time. Andries's Nek is about 

 twenty-five miles north-east of Queenstown ; and its coal is sup- 

 posed to be the same as that of the Stormberg. 



The coal-seams show themselves mainly on the northern slopes 

 of the Stormberg range, where they are thin and shaly, alter- 

 nating with softish dark-coloured sandstones and purple marls. 

 They are from 400 to 800 feet above the base of the mountains, 

 and are exposed in the hills and ridges [of the flanks ?]. The coal is 

 often pyritous ; and igneous dykes appear to have rendered much of 

 it anthracitic. Graphite, with black shales, has been found in 

 the north-western range of the Stormberg *. 



Mr. Vice's Stormberg coal, got by a shaft, sells at a fair rate at 

 the nearest villages. Considering the small population of the dis- 

 trict, the distance of the Stormberg inland, cost of transport, and 

 scarcity of labour, the Stormberg coal cannot be worked largely 

 as yet f. 



B, No. 1. [Mr. Carruthers remarks that, although this has some- 

 what the look of Gydostigma, it is a true SigiUaria, with a root- 

 let, and that its stigmata are smaller and more numerous than in 

 any published forms. — T. E. J.] 



The Lower-Albany coalfield is being explored by a Govern- 

 mental Survey. The reports are rather encouraging ; but seams of 

 really good coal do not yet (summer of 1870) appear to have been 

 reached there. [In the micaceous shales of this series, collected by 

 Mr. Neate at Port Alfred, Mr. Bristow, F.E.S., has detected Sigil- 

 laria, Stigmaria, Lepidostrohus, Halonia, and Selaginites, as re- 

 ported by him to the Colonial Secretary in May 1870. — T. E. J.] 



D, No. 2. This in particular was sent to the author from a 

 spot where a large diamond was found. Dr. Grey visited the 

 diamond-yielding districts of the Orange and the Vaal some years 

 ago, and noticed the presence of primary crystalline rocks among 

 the gravel and in the tufa of the alluvium. He now remarks that 

 the conglomeratic alluvium is like that described as occurring in 

 Brazil and other places where diamonds are found. He doubts 

 the diamonds of the Vaal and Orange rivers having been derived 

 from the Draakensberg. 



is almost, if not quite, the only marine fossil known in the Karoo beds (Quart. 

 Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxiii. p. 143).— T. E. J.] 



* [See also Dr. Rubidge's observations on these changes of the Karoo coal by 

 volcanic heat. Quart. Journ. G-eol. Soc. vol. xii. p. 7. — T. R. J.] 



t [Notes by Mr. Evans and Dr. Atherstone on the Stormberg Coal were 

 published in the ' Mining Journal ' of January 14, 1871. — T. R. J.] 



-p 9 



