532 PEOCEBDINGS OP THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



This section is from that part of the mountains where the Klaa,s- 

 Smit's Eiver (the "HokiJi" of Hall's Map) takes its rise. The 

 better to explain its position relatively to the two others previously- 

 described, I send a rough sketch-map of the intervening country, 

 (fig. 12). 



The lowest exposed stratum (1, 1) is a rather dark brownish-red 

 shale, about 150 feet thick, full of minute specks very much resem- 

 bling mica. On this is a very fine-grained greyish sandstone. 

 It forms a precipice about 40 feet high ; and this is the case with 

 every succeeding sandstone, the shales sloping from the one sandstone 

 to the foot of the other, which rises at once precipitously 40 or 50, 

 and, in the case of stratum No. 6, nearly 75 feet, forms a kind 

 of terrace a few feet wide, or, as on the surface of the last-mentioned 

 stratum (6), one of several yards in width, and then slopes up again 

 to the foot of the next sandstone at the higher level. No. 3 is a 

 shale of about the same thickness as the one below, and very similar in 

 character, except that it is of a lighter colour. Upon this rests a 

 sandstone (4) containing abundant impressions of leaves and very 

 thin layers of fossU wood. The next shale (5) is stUl lighter in colour 

 than the preceding one. Over this is No. 6, a rather gritty, light- 

 brown sandstone, also containing numerous impressions of leaves, 

 similar to those found in No. 4, as well as fossil wood ; also streaks 

 of fine coal and black hardened shale. These small patches of coal 

 appear to have been accumulations of vegetable matter in hollows 

 on the uneven surface of the sandstone beds at the time of deposi- 

 tion. Above this is abed (7) about one foot thick, composed of thin 

 layers of a light-broAvn hard shale ; a number of thin alternate layers 

 (No. 8) of light-coloured shale and coarse sandstone, containing round 

 nodules and pieces of fossil wood, succeed. These nodules contain 

 the same kind of ochres as some of those found in the Dordrecht 

 section (page 525), the contents of which were made use of by the 

 Bushmen. Next comes a thin sandstone (No. 9), and upon that six 

 feet of black shale (No. 10), containing a number of seams of coal 

 varying from an inch to a foot in thickness. This is the " Stormberg 

 coal deposit." I have seen a spot where this coal-shale is 14 or 15 

 feet thick. It is found cropping out at intervals for many miles 

 along the face of the mountains ; it also reappears on the northern 

 side of the range ; but the sections on that face have not yet been 

 examined. In this deposit (at 11) there is a remarkable band of 

 very fine yellow and white pipe-clay, about two or three inches 

 thick, its colour oifering a marked contrast to the black shale and its 

 accompanying coal-seams. No. 12 is a stratum of bluish-brown clay, 

 almost shaly. No. 13 is a gritty ferruginous sandstone, contain- 

 ing nodules (very similar to those sent as specimens from Dordrecht) 

 and quartz-pebbles. Upon this lies No. 14, consisting of a thick 

 band of ironstone nodules. It has been thought that the infiltration 

 through these strata, especially No. 13, into the coal-shales below 

 has injured the quality of the coal found in them by impregnating 

 it with mineral matter, from which that found in No. 6, in the small 



