President's Address cix 
boulders and stones and pebbles came, and how they were formed into 
a new rock, 
I am glad to think that the latest addition to our list of members is 
a gentleman who has made petrography one of his special branches of 
study, and that we may look forward to many valuable contributions 
in this department. 
The broad outlines of South African geology are laid down in a re- 
liable way. by previous workers ; the details of the country are to be 
filled in by a systematic study of each district. I rejoice at the decision 
of the Government, that the work is to be taken in hand without delay, 
and that the organization has been entrusted to a distinguished member 
of our Society, so that there is now no doubt that it will lead to a proper 
geological survey of the whole country, a consummation earnestly to be 
wished for. 
The progress which geognosy and stratigraphy have lately experienced 
in this country has been shared, or even surpassed, by another branch of 
geological research, viz., paleontology, the visit and labours of Pro- 
fessor Seeley having considerably advanced our knowledge in this 
department. We know, from his investigations, that the Karoo beds 
comprise five distinct periods. The Pariasawrus Bainsii, which he ex- 
tracted from the lower beds and named after the late Mr. Bain, who 
had discovered the specimen, is the representative of a new type of 
those huge animals which inhabited this part of the globe before the 
times.in which the layers of rock were deposited that at present form 
the Nieuwveldt Mountains. Up to the present this specimen is the 
only one known, and is consequently ‘one of the most prized ornaments 
of the British Museum,’ as Professor Seeley calls it. The country in 
which this animal originated and lived has to be satisfied with casts 
from the original, one of which is in the South African Museum at 
Cape Town, and one in the Albany Museum at Graham’s Town. 
Many other interesting forms of the extinct animal world of this 
country have been described, and are being described, by the eminent 
paleontologist, the material being supplied partly from his own finds, 
and partly from the collections in the two museums. One of the 
greatest difficulties of this work is the deplorable incompleteness 
of most of the specimens, many skulls having been gathered, but 
no complete skeletons of the larger animals, not even of the 
Dicynodon. 
The paleontology of the vegetable world has not been altogether 
neglected, some recent work having been done in this branch by Dr. 
Kannemeyer and Dr. Schénland. There are, however, many forms not 
yet identified, or known in incomplete specimens only. 
In turning our eyes to the living organic world, we find a larger 
