III.— AFRICA. 
In Africa it is especially the Karoo Formation in Southern Africa 
which is analogous to the Gondwana System in India, the coal-bearing beds 
in Australia, &c. 
This Karoo Formation has been differently described by various 
authors. But from the most recent information by Jones,* Moullef and 
Dunn, | the relations appear to he the following : — 
1. In South Africa there occur distinctly Palaeozoic rocks, viz., 
Devonian and Carboniferous. 
2. The Carboniferous Series contains plant remains such as occur in 
Europe, in the Coal Measures at Tulbagh, Lower Albany, &c. 
3. Above these Carboniferous beds, further to the north, the Karoo 
Formation and Stormberg beds arc deposited, contaning such fossils as occur 
in the middle (Damuda and Pancliet Series) and upper division of the 
Gondwana System in India. 
4. Between the Carboniferous beds and the Karoo Formation the 
Ekka beds are deposited, which consist of shales in the higher portion, and 
of a boulder bed — -the so-called Dwyka Conglomerate. 
5. According to some authors, as Tate, Griesbacli, and Moullc, this 
portion is conformable to the overlying Karoo beds; while, according to 
others, as Dunn and Jones, it overlies conformably the Coal Measures, and 
is discordant to the Karoo Formation. 
0. Whether the one or the other view he correct, so much is certain, 
that the Ekka beds are higher than the Carboniferous beds with coal plants, 
and thus, naturally, they cannot be older, probably they are younger than 
these. 
7. The Ekka boulder bed or Dwyka Conglomerate is now generally 
admitted to have been formed by ice action, and this circumstance would 
certainly indicate very different conditions during its deposition from those 
which prevailed during the formation of the preceding coal strata. I con- 
sider the formation of this boulder bed to fall at the end of the Carboniferous 
Epoch, and thus the Upper Ekka beds to represent the Permian Epoch. It 
is, therefore, also quite natural that, just as in Australia, so in Southern 
Africa, the change of climate has caused a termination of the Carboniferous 
* Brit. Assoc. Report. Montreal, 1884. (Abstr. Geol. Mag., October, 1884, p. 470, &c.) 
t Annales ties Mines, 1885. Mars-Avril, i8S5. 
+ Various Reports of 1876, 1879, 18SG, Cape Town. Also in Catalogue of Exhibits, Cape of Good Hope,’ 
Indian and Colonial Exhibition, London, 1886, 
