544 PROCEEDINGS OP THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



covered for many miles with clay, and innumerable angular frag- 

 ments of rock are thickly strewn over the surface. At Beaufort 

 this unstratified clay is from 30 to 40 feet thick. In Lower Albany, 

 again, similar angular pieces of rock are spread over a large extent 

 of country ; some of the latter fragments I have found with one or 

 more polished surfaces. Some of the Dutch farmers offered to explaia 

 the circumstance by stating that the polish was occasioned by the 

 wild bucks rubbing against them ; but as they were often in such 

 positions that the bucks could not get at them, such an explanation 

 cannot be received. 



Glacial agency. — Future investigations may modify some of the 

 conclusions I have arrived at ; but here are a number of phenomena 

 that cannot be well explained by the theory of ordinary atmospheric 

 and aqueous agencies, — the rounding-off of the hills in the interior 

 of these ancient basins ; the numerous dome-shaped rocks ; the 

 enormous erratic boulders, in positions where water could not have 

 carried them ; the frequency of unstratified clays ; clays with im- 

 bedded angular boulders ; drift and lofty mounds of boulders ; large 

 tracts of country thickly spread over with unstratified clays and 

 superimposed fragments of rock ; the Oliphant's Hoek clay and 

 the vast piles of Enon Conglomerate — aU these seem to indicate 

 periods when the climate was far more severe than at present : 

 these are phenomena, in fact, which in other countries are considered 

 to indicate accumulations and deposits requiring the wearing action 

 of ice and extreme cold to account for their production. 



Succession of Periods Sfc. — Having thus tried to point out the 

 probable causes of the vast denudation of the Licynodon strata, I 

 cannot help believing that it did not all take place at the same 

 period; the Enon Conglomerate and the enormous gaps that I 

 noticed as occurring between sorde of the diff'erent coast-formations 

 seem to point to this. Another evidence of the same kind appears 

 to be the remarkable " whirled " rock that I have alluded to (p. 539), 

 found on the north side of the Bongolo Neck. This rock was evi- 

 dently at one time the outlet of the present Quoquodala basin, before 

 the deeper opening towards Glen Grey was formed. In this place 

 we not only find unstratified clay with boulders, but this again is 

 placed upon what I have called a " whirled " sandstone, because it 

 looks as if, while it were yet soft, it had been stirred up, and rolled 

 together by ice enveloping the boulders imbedded in it (Section AD). 

 These last are mostly angular, and occur in every position, not 

 having been deposited according to size, as would have been the 

 case had water been the agent. This sandstone is evidently far 

 more ancient than the superincumbent clay, which appears almost 

 recent in comparison. 



There seems little doubt that the whole of the Dicynodon forma- 

 tion, since the close of the period when its last strata were deposited, 

 has been high above the level of the sea, and its elevated position 

 has prevented any great accumulation of soil taking place ; for since 

 the great denudation, and since the present transverse river courses 

 have been cut through the mountains (although, as I have before 



