466 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Apr. 18, 



and are separated by lenticular deposits of arenaceous shale and grit, 

 I have hopes, by following them, we may find them passing per- 

 manently into one or more thick beds. The distance, however, of 

 this locality from a sea-port (200 miles) is such, that the value of 

 the coal will not repay the expense of working and carriage. It is 

 of importance, however, for use in the Colony [Natal], and since it 

 began to be wrought the imports of coal into Natal have ceased. 



Judging from the cursory examination I have been able to make 

 of the impressions of leaves and stems contained in the shale, they 

 resemble the Oolitic flora more than that of the true Coal-formation. 

 Bones, apparently of a Saurian *, are imbedded in a highly calca- 

 reous rock which crops out above the coal-strata, and are associated 

 with the vegetable impressions which characterize the latter. 



The arenaceous shale is frequently found beautifully ripple-marked, 

 and that too within half a foot, in the descending series, beneath the 

 coal. 



The crystalline rocks, cropping out in a line nearly parallel with 

 the direction of the sea-coast, are infringed upon by beds of coarse 

 sandstone, which occasionally show symptoms of disturbance from 

 extensive beds of a species of trachyte containing fragments of the 

 crystalline rocks on which the less disturbed sandstone strata rest. 

 At first I had considerable doubt about the true character of the 

 trachytic rock, but they were removed by finding the sandstone beds 

 scored and grooved where the superincumbent erupted matter had 

 passed over them in a state of semi-fusion. This condition of semi- 

 fusion must have conduced to the mechanical suspension of the gra- 

 nitic fragments. Where the grooves and scratches were observed, 

 the inclination of the strata is 1° 17'. Removal of the erupted matter 

 by the denuding agency of the weather reveals the grooved surface 

 of the stratified rock, which has been rendered the more enduring 

 by contact with the former. On the coast and inland sides of these 

 beds, extensive strata of shales and sandstone alternate with irregular 

 beds of greenstone, which frequently crop out as basaltic cliffs. 

 Dykes of the same material traverse the strata in all directions. 



The metamorphic strata of the district frequently show extensive 

 contorted laminae of quartz, which undergo disintegration under 

 atmospheric influences, but gold does not appear to have been yet 

 found in connexion with them. 



Undulating table-lands of considerable extent are not uncommon 

 at a height of 5000 feet in this district, and many such are composed 

 of a bed of greenstone at the top, resting on beds of shale and sand- 

 stone, the latter being traversed by dykes of the volcanic rock. 

 These table-hills occur about twenty or thirty miles from the coast, 

 and are several miles in extent. Some of these rise precipitously 

 above level plains of equal extent. 



A huge dyke of granite runs from N.E. to S.W. in a somewhat 



* [The author thinks this to be Ichthyosaurus, but perhaps it is Dicynodon, as 

 these strata appear to be continuous with those described by Mr. Bain. — Ed.] 



