Mr. G. W. Stow's Geological Notes on Griqualand West. 313 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 

 [Continued from p. 235.] 



April 30, 1873. — Joseph Prestwich, Esq., F.R.S., Vice-President, 

 in the Chair. 

 The following communications were read : — 



1. " On the Permian Breccias and Boulder-beds of Armagh." 

 By Prof. Edward Hull, F.R.S., F.G.S., Director of the Geological 

 Survey of Ireland. 



In this paper the author described certain breccias occurring in 

 the vicinity of Armagh, which he referred, both on stratigraphical 

 and physical grounds, to the Lower Permian series, considering them 

 to be identical with the " brockram " of Cumberland and the breccias 

 of Worcestershire and Shropshire. The lower beds rest on the de- 

 nuded surface of the Lower Carboniferous Limestone, and consist of 

 a breccia of limestone pebbles in a reddish sandy paste, sometimes 

 becoming a bedded calcareous sandstone with pebbles. These beds, 

 which are 10-12 feet thick, are overlain by soft rudely stratified 

 conglomerate and Boulder-beds of subangular and rounded blocks 

 of grit, felspathic sandstone, vein- quartz, and limestone. In some 

 places the breccia graduates up into the overlying Boulder-beds ; but 

 sometimes its surface is eroded. These beds are overlain by Boulder- 

 clay of the Drift period. Within the city of Armagh well-borings 

 &c. have revealed the existence of New Bed Sandstone above the 

 Breccia and Boulder-beds. In the author's opinion the only agent 

 which could have brought the blocks of Silurian and Old-Bed- Sandstone 

 age found in the Boulder-beds from their place of origin is floating 

 ice. The author further referred to the extensive denudation which 

 the Carboniferous beds have undergone in Armagh, and also alluded 

 to the occurrence of beds of Permian age near Benburb, between 

 Armagh and Dungannon. 



2. " Geological Notes on Griqualand West." By G. W. Stow, 

 Esq., F.G.S. 



The geological results of a journey made by Mr. G. W. Stow and 

 Mr. F. H. S. Orpen from the Orange Free State into Griqualand 

 West are communicated by Mr. Stow in this paper, with numerous 

 carefully executed sections and a geological map based on the survey 

 map prepared by Mr. Orpen for the Government. From the junc- 

 tion of the Riet and Modder rivers (south of the Panneveldt Dia- 

 mond-fields) westward to the junction of the Yaal and the Orange, 

 over the Great Campbell Plateau to Griquatown, Ongeluk, Matsap, 

 Potgieter, the Langeberg, Witte Zand, and to Kheis and the Schurwe 

 Bergen, the track traversed three degrees of longitude, but nearly 

 300 miles of road. The return route north-east to Mount Huxley 

 and Daniel's Kuil, and eastward to Likatlong, on the Hart or Kolang 

 river, was nearly as long ; and its results form part of the present 

 communication. A subsequent portion of the journey up the Hart, 

 across to the Yaal, down the valley by the diamond-diggings of 



