STOW — SOTTTH-APBICAN GEOLOGY. 525 



palpable powders of different colours, from which the ancient Bush- 

 man race (now rapidly becoming extinct) obtained many of the 

 pigments they used in their cave-paintings. This noduliferous 

 sandstone lies on the quartzose grit (D. S. 1 *, in some places 

 almost a conglomerate), No. 7, ten feet thick, and composed of 

 quartz, which could only have come from the Washbank. Below 

 this is the coarse sandstone of the " Forest-zone," No. 8, with " silici- 

 fied " trees, probably coniferous, at least thirty feet long. No. 9 is a 

 much finer-grained sandstone, and of a darker colour. Great num- 

 bers of what appear to be casts of roots t, are obtained from this 

 deposit. Sometimes they are soft and easily pulverized ; and when 

 found in that state they were ground down and used by the 

 Bushmen as a fine dark chocolate paint, frequently tised by them in 

 delineating the human figure in their eaves. The height from the 

 lowest exposed stratum to the basaltic blocks is about 450 feet,' 



The discovery of stratified clays below these beds was made in 

 sinking a well in the village of Dordrecht ; and although no inter- 

 vening section has yet been obtained, it seems very probable that 

 they are conformable. For six or eight feet the upper clays are 

 of a bright-yellowish colour, No. 10, with abundance of Pecopteris (?) 

 and other plants. I secured a large case of them ; but, unfortunately, 

 during its transit it was saturated with rain, and these beautiful 

 specimens were destroyed J. Below, the clays (from seven to eight 

 feet thick) are of a light-grey colour. No. 11 ; here the Ferns &c. 

 are not so abundant. Below this there is a dark bluish-grey clay. 

 No. 12, much more compact than those above, and from ten to twelve 

 feet thick ; in this the leaf-impressions are far less numerous. I 

 am not aware whether or not these clays appear at the surface at a 

 lower level. 



The dip of the strata in the section just described is 6° or 7° S.E., 

 and they are probably some of the most recent on the northern 

 portion of this great basin of deposit. 



Section on the Upper Zwart Kei. — The section, fig. 9, is from the 



* " D. S. 1." Round lump of coarse quartzose grit (some of the grains 

 rounded), with some felspar and a little mica, feebly cemented with iron-oxide 

 and some clay.^T. E.. J. 



t The specimen sent represents, in fragments, a long subcylindrical con- 

 cretion (?) of amorphous chocolate-brown haematite, striated longitudinally 

 outside, and here and there showing traces of concentric structure within. 

 Specimens of the enclosing rock, sent with the above, consist of ferruginous 

 sandstone, with indeterminable casts and markings. — T. R. J. 



X Mr. Carruthers, F.R.S., of the British Museum, having examined the speci- 

 mens here referred to, has kindly supplied the following note :— 



" The specimens from Dordrecht are not satisfactory. Among them are three 

 species of Ferns, which, I believe, are new. One seems to be a species of 

 DaiKsopsis, a second a Sphenopteris ; and I know not what fossil genus I could 

 refer the third to. With these are associated what appear to be fragments of a 

 monocotyledonous plant, which are undeterminable. 



" It is not improbable that a set of these Ferns would comprise specimens with 

 fructification ; and this would be very important. The fragments before me have 

 been so much injured by the water which had access to them that they are little 

 more than determinable as Ferns. 



" The woods are all, I believe, Coniferous.— W. C, April 10, 1871." 



