Yol. 50.] ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. 59 



summary of his views as to the probable geological history of South 

 Africa, concluding that, since the great uplift of the country took 

 place, that region has probably continued dry land to the present 

 day, " for the scraps of Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Tertiary formations 

 that it possesses lie close to the coast and were apparently formed 

 at no great distance from the shore." 



These words bring us to the consideration of Mr. Baron's paper 

 on Madagascar, where the author tells us that sedimentary rocks 

 occur mainly on the western and southern sides of the island. The 

 relation of these to each other has not yet been determined ; but 

 judging from the fossils it would seem that the following formations 

 are represented, viz. : — Lias, Lower Oolites, Oxfordian, Neocomian, 

 Upper Cretaceous, and Eocene, whilst Recent Deposits fringe the 

 coast and are largely developed on the southern part of the island. 

 That portion of Madagascar which faces the Indian Ocean is 

 represented as consisting of crystalline rocks with some volcanic 

 ones. Hence, all the Neozoic beds above detailed must have been 

 deposited within the area of the Mozambique Channel ; nor do 

 the eastern shores of the island furnish us with any evidence of 

 what kind of rocks the fabled Lemuria consisted. 



Reverting once more to South Africa, I may remind you that 

 Mr. Penning, in a ' Contribution to the Geology of the Southern 

 Transvaal,' directed attention more especially to the relation of the 

 Gold-fields to each other, and to the high-level Coal-field of that 

 region. He at the same time submitted a classification of the 

 sedimentary rocks, dividing the high-level Coal-field into the Kim- 

 berlev Beds and the High Veldt Beds, both of which he conceived 

 to be of Oolitic age : upon this point it must be admitted there 

 is considerable difference of opinion. The Witwatersrandt Series 

 and associated beds he considered to be of Devonian age. More- 

 over, he expressed his opinion that the region had been under 

 glacial influences during the long period which intervened between 

 their deposition and that of the coal-bearing rocks of the High 

 Yeldt. These latter he considers to be of fluviatile origin, and he 

 concludes that there has been a continuity of subaerial denudation 

 from the close of the Oolitic period until the present time. 



Some of the details of this paper were criticized, especially by 

 Mr. Walcot Gibson and Mr. Alford. The former of these gentle- 

 men subsequently communicated a paper on the ' Geology of the 

 Gold-bearing Districts of the Southern Transvaal,' wherein he 

 concludes that the gold-bearing conglomerates of the Witwaters- 



