viii Transactions of the South African Philosophical Society. 



bore out this view. This was the district in which bone-diseases in 

 cattle prevailed. 



Of the soils of the Karroo system those derived from the Burghers- 

 dorp beds and Stormberg series were found to be well supplied with 

 potash and phosphates and contained large proportions of lime. 

 This was also the case with the soils formed from the Uitenhage 

 series, in the Cretaceous system. 



For hundreds of miles fertile silts were transported by rivers in 

 flood. To the silts thus brought down from the Karroo the 

 Oudtshoorn Division owed its fertility, and the soil of that Division 

 was now undergoing transportation to the sea, except where deposited 

 in the Eiversdale and Mossel Bay Divisions en route. 



An abstract was read of Dr. E. Broom's paper '' On Some New 

 Fossil Eeptiles from Victoria West." 



A description is given of three new reptiles found by Mr. T. J. E. 

 Scholtz at Victoria West, in beds which are believed to correspond 

 to the Lystrosaurus beds of Colesberg, Middelburg and Cradock. 

 Hitherto almost the only fossils known from these beds have been 

 the aquatic Lystrosaurus and fish. Whether we are right in con- 

 cluding that the land forms discovered by Mr. Scholtz are of this 

 period it will be impossible to settle for some time. They certainly 

 represent an entirely new fauna and one of the forms discovered is 

 the most important palseontological find made in South Africa during 

 the last fifteen years. 



At present it is possible to trace back in an almost unbroken series 

 the ancestors of the mammals, through the Monotremes and Cyno- 

 donts to the Therocephalians, but beyond this we have no evidence, 

 and it is impossible to say whether the Therocephalians have come 

 from a Pareiasauj^tis -like ancestor or from a member of the early 

 Diapsidan Eeptiles like the Pelycosaurians. One of the forms 

 discovered by Mr. Scholtz and named Galechirus scholtzi is almost 

 exactly intermediate between the Therocephalians and the Diapto- 

 saurians, and thus gives us a clue to the origin of the mammal-like 

 reptiles. 



The teeth are all fairly similar, there being no specialised canine, 

 and the lower jaw has no coronoid process. The eye is large and 

 has well developed sclerotic plates. The humerus has both an 

 ectepicondylar and an entepicondylar foramen. The ulna has no 

 olecranon process. The digital formula is 2,3,3,3,3. Precoracoids 

 and coracoids are both well developed and there is a large interclavicle 

 but apparently no cleithrum. Abdominal ribs are well developed. 

 The pubis and ischium are plate-like and the ilium short and directed 

 mainly backwards. 



