516 PROCEEDINGS OP THE GEOLOGICAI, SOCIETY. 



to within three miles of Prentice Kraal, and nearly in the same meri- 

 dian as Blaaw Krantz. This latter place, however, is some three or 

 four miles off the limestone. It is seen npon Landman's Kop, a 

 hill lying just eastward of the Sundays Elver's mouth, and at Deep 

 Kloof and Groof Water, in Oliphant's Hoek, twenty miles south of 

 the Sundays River. To the southward of Port Elizabeth the lime- 

 stone hills of Buffel's Vontein, Chelsea, andYan Staden's Eiver, are 

 probably of the same fonnation." 



Mr. Pinchin's professional duties have given him opportunities of 

 visiting every part of the district. The places which I have ex- 

 amined are : — Eocke's Bluff ; a quarry on the flat between the Go- 

 vernment Saltpan and the Zwartkops Heights ; on the banks of that 

 river, to a deep kloof, a little below the drift (ford) on the old 

 Grahamstown Eoad ; the old waggon-track on the north bank of 

 the Koega, near the Kopjes; different spots on the Grassridge ; 

 and at McLoughlin's Bluff. It seems to be a single deposit, and 

 not a series like the others (see p. 519). It varies very little 

 in aU the localities that I visited, being from 4 to 6 feet thick, 

 except at McLoughlin's Bluff, where it is much thinner. It is 

 highly fossiliferoxis, and abounds with fragments of shells, and 

 now and then with some that are nearly perfect. Of the bi- 

 valves only single valves are found, and the majority have been 

 broken by the action of the waves. In some localities there are 

 immense deposits of a large species of Ostrea. Out of 22 dif- 

 ferent species of shells, nine are not at present found on the neigh- 

 bouring coast, five are still doubtful, leaving only eight of the 

 number that are positively recognized as being inhabitants of the 

 present sea. 



2. Pliocene or Postpliocene Strata on the Coast. — Following this lime- 

 stone, and with an evidently wide interval, is a series of deposits 

 which are spread out from Port Elizabeth to the month of the creek (or 

 Eerreira's Eiver), and thence, in detached spots, to the Zwartkops. 

 The oldest deposit appears to be a sandy tufaceous (?) limestone, 

 interspersed with many patches of conglomerate, formed of small 

 quartzite pebbles. It is very fossiliferous. Out of twenty -five 

 species of sheEs that I collected from this bed, twelve have not been 

 found in the adjoining sea. The- greater portion of these are frag- 

 ments. This deposit was certainly laid down under widely different 

 circumstances from those of which I shaL. have to speak presently, 

 and in which the shells, however fragile and delicate, are in a 

 beautifully perfect state. 



As far as I could judge from an excavation I had made at the 

 foot of the cliff, I found this stratum to be from four to eight feet 

 thick ; but I found great difficialty in obtaining a good section, as, 

 at the lowest level arrived at, the water flowed in so rapidly that we 

 conld not proceed. The bed extended from a qiiarter to half a mile 

 inland, where it was hidden nnder the seolian sandhills. It was 

 covered by a non -fossiliferous limestone, a few inches thick ; and 

 above that was spread a layer of loose pebbles of the same kind as 

 those in the pebbly limestone itself. 



