1867.] Geology and Palaeontology. 539 



number of fossils from the Mesozoic deposits of that region, and is 

 enriched by much information on the stratigraphy of the district, 

 brought together by Prof. T. Bupert Jones, F.Gr.S. The fossils 

 were obtained from two series of deposits, namely, (1) the Karoo 

 Beds, and (2) the Uitenhage Series ; and they consist of plants 

 from the former, and plants and shells from the latter. The Karoo 

 Beds include a large series of deposits, the more recent of which 

 (the Dicynodon-strata) have yielded the reptilian remains which 

 have impressed a classical stamp on the South African region, as 

 well as some of the plants now described. Mr. Tate infers their 

 age to be Triassic, chiefly because, while the plants are undoubtedly 

 Mesozoic, the strata are distinctly older than the Uitenhage Series 

 above them. 



The Uitenhage Series, which the author infers to be of Jurassic 

 age, has yielded about half-a-dozen species of ferns and a few 

 Cycads, besides nearly forty species of Mollusca, and is probably 

 of the same date as the strata of the Eajmahal Hills and of 

 Scarborough, which yield remains representing those from the 

 South African strata. In the same way the plants from the Karoo 

 beds present a close analogy with those from the Coal-formation of 

 Eastern Australia, and the plant-bearing beds of Burdwan and 

 Nagpur in India, the characteristic plant in all these deposits being 

 a Glossopteris, apparently belonging to the same species. 



The examination of so interesting a series of Lower Secondary 

 fossils has necessarily led Mr. Tate to compare them with those 

 obtained from the equivalent deposits in Europe, and he has come 

 to the conclusion that while the Upper Trias of Europe presents a 

 remarkable uniformity with its representatives in other countries, 

 the Jurassic series — which is so fully developed in Western and 

 Central Europe, and is reduced in the Mediterranean basin to the 

 beds from the Lias to the Oxford Clay inclusive — in Kussia con- 

 stitute but one formation, and the extra-European developments of 

 the series are more comparable with the Eussian than the more 

 Western type. He does not, therefore, regard these South African 

 deposits as corresponding to any particular division of the Jurassic 

 rocks, but considers them rather to represent the whole of the 

 formation, with the exception of the Upper Oolites. 



Mr. Boyd Dawkins contributes a second paper on the British 

 Fossil Oxen, namely, on Bos longifrons, Owen, and arrives at the 

 conclusion that although it has been found abundantly in the bone- 

 caves and alluvia of the Pre-historic age, it has not yet been proved 

 to have existed in earlier times. He also considers it to be the 

 progenitor of the small Highland and Welsh cattle, and altogether 

 an animal more nearly concerning . the archaeologist than the 

 geologist. 



A most interesting and carefully written paper, " On some Sea- 



