510 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, 



too thickly covered with soil &c. to obtain a trustworthy section ; 

 nor can I, of course, say whether its strata assimilate rather to the 

 clays and sandstones of the Bethelsdorp Saltpan ; but Dr. Rubidge 

 told me that he picked up a number of the spines and plates of Cidaris 

 piistulifera among the debris of this outlier. All I can speak of 

 with certainty is from Section P (fig. 5), which I was able to make 

 during the excavation of a large tank on the top of this outlier. In 

 this section the surface-soil was interspersed with shingle (as in 

 Section N). Below this was a band of tufa, from 12 to 18 inches in 

 depth ; then 2 feet of friable sandstone, interspersed with carbonate 

 of lime, as shown in the section ; again tufaceous limestone, from 5 

 to 7 inches ; beneath that, 13 inches of sandstone, interspersed with 

 carbonate of lime in the same manner as the sandstone above ; again 

 1 foot of limestone, then sandstone 3 feet; below this, three uneven 

 belts of sandy limestone and sandstone, respectively 6, 7, & 6 inches 

 thick ; these were followed by 1 foot of sandstone, of the same cha- 

 racter as the thick band above ; and beneath them all, at the bottom 

 of the excavation, was a reddish sandstone, the thickness of which is 

 at present unknown. 



Yery little is accurately known of the fossil contents of the strata 

 shown in the last three sections. They evidently require attentive 

 examination, and promise a rich harvest to future explorers. Since 

 my departure from Port Elizabeth, Messrs. Kemsley & Burness have 

 found fossil Ferns in some of these clays, but have not been able to 

 identify them with any of those from Geelhoutboom, on the Sundays 

 Biver*. The clay in which they were found " rested upon sandstone 

 containing immense fragments of leaflets and petioles of Zamice, 

 mixed with pieces of wood." To this discovery I shall have to allude 

 again (p. 513). 



Resume of the Strata of the Saliferous Group. — None of these 

 sandstones that I have examined possess the close, compact nature 

 of those found among the rocks of the Lower Zwartkops in Section 

 A (fig. 3) ; but they are all of a coarse gritty texttire, very like those 

 I have spoken of as being found on the Koega (p. 506). 



In looking over the various sections of these stratified clays and 

 saliferous sandstones (namely I — P), one cannot help being impressed 

 with their diversified aspect, each section differing widely from the 

 others ; and they seem to indicate that we are not examining a 

 single wide-spread deposit, but a partially consecutive series, some- 

 thing similar to, but of more limited extent than, those of the 

 XJitenhage formation before considered. This becomes more appa- 

 rent by looking at the diagram (fig. 6), in which the foregoing sec- 

 tions are collated and compared. 



Here the section near the Salt Ylei, noticed by Messrs. Kemsley and 

 Burness (fig. 6, s), becomes an important addition, as by it we find that 

 Trigonia?, Turritellce and a GervllUa were obtained from the loivest 

 stratum of sandstone in this formation, while the clays with Ostrea 

 and Tellina (?) are above. This sandstone deposit appears to be one of 

 the oldest, if not the most ancient, of this Saliferous formation, 

 * Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxiii. p. 145 &c. 



