ETJBIDGE— SOrTH-ArETCAN EOCKS. 
47 
were deposited over a wide area, and, unlike the Torbane Hill basin, 
with the greatest uniformity. This upper coal-basin then strikingly 
contrasts with tlie unique character of the Torbane Hill basin ; and 
greatly aids our argument that the mineral was formed under different 
physical conditions from those of the true coal-beds. 
NOTES ON THE METAMOEPHOSIS OP EOCKS IN 
SOUTH APEICA. 
Bt Dr. E. N. Eubidge, of Port Elizabeth. 
It is near eleven years since that in travelling through Howison's 
Poort,* one of the most picturesque of the many fine mountain passes 
through the quartzite ranges of the eastern province of the Cape 
Colony, my attention was drawn to a geological fact to which obser- 
vation in other parts of tlie Colony has since led me to attach no 
little importance. In the construction of the main road from Port 
Elizabeth to Graham's Town, many deep cuttings liave been made in 
the solid quartzite rock. In many instances the rock seen in these 
works lost its crystalline character gradually, and assumed that of a 
hard blue sandstone, and at length nearly resembled the blue fossi- 
liferous shales and sandstones of the Ecca. 
These quartzite rocks have been referred to the age of the Carbo- 
niferous formation of Europe by ]\Ir. Bain (Geol. Trans, vol. vii. 2nd 
series, pp. 54 and 1S3), and both he and Dr. Atherstone (' Eastern Pro- 
vince Magazine,' vol. i. p. 588) describe them as conformable with the 
slaty rocks of the district. I iiave no doubt whatever that they generally 
are so. They pass gradually into each other, and, as 1 have described, 
the quartzite traced downward loses much of its siliceous character, 
and gradually assumes that of the slate and of the Ecca rock. This 
last is by Mr. Bain dissociated from the Carboniferous formation, and 
made the lowermost of the Lacustrine or Karoo series, but I have the 
following reasons for differing with him : — 
1. At the western entrance of Howison's Poort are some bods of 
rock, intermediate in lithological character between the quartzite and 
the Ecca beds. These contain vegetable stems which have been re- 
cognized by many as identical with those of the Ecca. At Forester's 
Earm, east of Graham's Town, is a blue rock, just like that of the 
Ecca, containing the same fossils, which passes gradually into the 
gneiss. The sandstone on the one side is in relation on the other 
with the claystone-porphyry of Bain, as is the rock at the Ecca. 
Near Salem,* in the heart of the Carboniferous system of Bain, are 
similar rocks with like fossils, conformable with the quartzite. 
2. The strike of the inclined rocks, quartzites, slates, and Ecca 
rocks is throughout the province north 60° west nearly. If we draw 
Poort, a natural pass through a mountain range. 
