188 Mr. Bain on the Geology of Southern Africa. 



I need not here repeat, as the specimens in my collection of 1847 will illustrate 

 the whole, there being no difference in all the three sections traversing the repti- 

 liferous series. 



I ought, however, to add, that I discovered a number of fossil plants (PI. XXVIII. 

 fig. 1) in the Middle Roggeveld, which I have not met with in the more eastern 

 sections, and two specimens of which I send with my present collection. These 

 occur in the sandstone and schistose strata of that locality to the thickness of 1200 

 feet. They somewhat resemble the Asterophyllites of the coal-measures, and, like 

 the Sphagnum palustre of the peat-bogs, seem to have thrown out fresh branches as 

 the lower parts became enveloped in mud. I arrived at this conclusion by finding 

 the plants invariably in a vertical position, and the stalk passing through several 

 distinct beds of stratification, with something at the bottom resembling roots. 



Among the fossil plants of Roggeveld, a species of Lycopodium ? was frequently 

 recognized, but could not be extracted from the rock. At Little Table Mountain, 

 Kleine Roggeveld, I discovered the silicified stem of a large tree about 20 feet 

 long, and in a very perfect state of preservation. 



Towards the northern end of Section No. 3, I discovered in 1846 an extensive 

 tract of country which, in addition to the remains of Dicynodonts and other reptiles, 

 contained great masses of siliceous wood, imbedded in its horizontally stratified 

 white sandstones, together with thin beds of coal. None of the coal-beds, of a 

 quality fit for use, were thick enough to be worked. It is frequently anthracitic, 

 and much of it is deficient in bitumen. 



At Wittebergen, near the upper branches of the Orange River, I found a large 

 sandstone slab, of about 8 feet square, with the branch of a tree imbedded therein, 

 in all its beautiful and extensive ramifications, just as it grew, the wood having 

 completely partaken of the nature of its sihceous matrix ; it was, however, impos- 

 sible to remove this splendid fossil. 



A remarkable feature in the geology of South Africa is the immense numbers of 



Trap Dikes 



that reticulate throughout the whole of the reptiliferous strata ; their erupted 

 matter, on reaching the surface, being generally found capping the highest moun- 

 tains, with huge irregular prismatic columns. The most wonderful of these dikes 

 is that gigantic mass which protrudes from the Spitzkop, as seen in Section No. 2, 

 Plate XXL, and rises to the height of 10,000 feet above the sea. The horizon- 

 tality of the stratified rocks is never in the least disturbed by the intrusion of the 

 trap ; nor are faults, as in Europe, produced by this cause : the only difference it 

 makes is in indurating or honeycombing the strata through which it passes. At 

 Spitzkop, above mentioned, the sandstone in contact with the huge dike is meta- 



