56 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



with the strata among which they lie. The cLay stone-porphyry of 

 Bain, appears conformable as to individual beds, while in the mass 

 it crosses the section of the country. I have never found igneous 

 rocks in the positions of upheaving rocks. I have repeatedly found 

 them in positions (4, 5) where they could not possibly be so. In 

 Namaqualand the rocks between Springbok and Concordia were per- 

 haps more decidedly gneiss-like than in any other part of the section, 

 except perhaps near Kok Yontein, yet I regard these two spots (the 

 former about a mile north of Springbok Yontein, the latter two 

 miles south-east of Kok Yontein) as the main axial lines of the 

 country. Many facts concur to prove that whatever may have been 

 the cause of the upheaval of strata in this country, igneous rocks 

 have had nothing to do with it. That there are considerable difficul- 

 ties about the stratification of this neighbourhood, I fully believe. 

 That I have no clue to the satisfactory explanation of those difficul- 

 ties I am obliged to confess. To mention one or two, I believe that 

 encrinites are generally local in their distribution, that is, individual 

 species are confined to a few beds ; and that if the same species of 

 encrinite is found in these spots, the rocks containing them may be 

 safely assigned to the same age or near it. At the northern base of 

 tlie Coxcomb * are some nearly horizontal beds of blue and ferru- 

 ginous schists containing trilobites, shell-fish, and encrinites, pro- 

 nounced Devonian on good authority. The strike of these rocks is 

 north 60° west nearly, and this line of strike would pass through 

 Cape Eeciife. The Chatty beds of shale, which are in hills continu- 

 ous with those of Port Elizabeth, would nearly correspond in strike 

 with these beds ; and at Chatty two or three encrinites identical 

 with those of Coxcomb occur. Yet at the former place the rocks 

 dip at an angle of 45°. There do not seem to be any igneous rocks 

 to account for this difference. At Naroos, near Uitenhage, the slaty 

 beds are associated with quartzite, and dip at 60°-70°. 



Again, the beds containing spirifers or this encrinite at Kabel- 

 jouw river's mouth, Jeffrey's Bay, have but a slight dip on the sea- 

 shore ; a little inland they have a greater dip, but at Hermansdorp, 

 where the same spirifers or this of encrinite occur, they have a dip of 

 80° close to their junction with the quartzite. I cannot account for 

 these things. I suppose no one in the present day would call quartz- 

 ite an igneous or upheaving rock. Yet it is certainly my impression 

 that if any rock in this country influences the chauge of dip in either 

 rocks, quartzite does. Mr. Niven, the gentleman from whom I have 

 the last fact, and who has done so nuich in throwing new liglit on the 

 geology of this province, tells me that the quartzite, a hundred and 

 eighty yards from the slate, dips 45°. If compelled to suggest a reason 

 for these things, it would be, that whereas quartzite might be meta- 

 morphosed by addition of matter infiltrated, clay stone, porphyry, 

 granite, etc., might owe their origin to mere crystalline action under 

 the agency of water, thermo-electric currents, etc. This last is 

 Mr. Sterry Hunt's view, 1 think. 



* Part of the 'Wiutcrhock range, mis-spelt jMutcvlioclc in the abstract of my Pa])er. 



