Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 27.djvu/669

 zogii, and Pleuromya lutraria are very numerous, these, in fact, being the predominant forms of this zone. Whether No. 8, in the kloof near McLoughlin's Bluff, is a continuation of this (No. 11), as seems probable, will require further proof. Again, in No. 10, near Cuyler Manor, are numerous Ammonites and Trigonioe, and the Exogyra of the lower strata has very considerably diminished in numbers ; while in No. 9 we find a perfect " Trigonia-zone " very similar to that marked No. 3 in Section G, of the Upper Sundays River *.

Again, in Section E at McLoughlin's Bluff, we find No. 7, a zone containing numerous Hamites and Modioloe associated with a large Ancyloceras (?). This bed seems to have its equivalent in No. 3, Section G, of the Upper Sundays-River strata ; and, lastly, we have No. 5, in Sections E and F, with multitudes of Trigonia ventricosa and its accompanying Trigonia vau. To show my meaning better, I have massed the foregoing Sections A, B, C, E, E & G into one general one (fig. 3).

B. Saliferous heels of the Uitenhage Formation. — I will now proceed to notice some sections I have made at the Government and Bethelsdorp Saltpans, the Koega River, and the Salt Vlei near Port Elizabeth. These sections represent the stratified clays and sandstones of the " Saliferous deposits " of the " Uitenhage formation," which have been placed by some investigators† as underlying the Zwartkops fossiliferous sandstones of which we have been speaking.

Government Saltpan between the Zwartkops and Koega Rivers. — The first locality I shall mention is that of the Government Saltpan between the Zwartkops and Koega Rivers (see fig. 6, 7, and 7). This section (Section I) has been figured and described by Dr. Atherstone‡. 1,2, & 3 are, as be says, thin bands of hard, highly fossiliferous, dark ferruginous sandstone, about 3 or 4 inches thick, containing broken shells (Trigonia, Ostrea, Turritella) and spines of Cidarites. These hard bands alternate with saliferous shales and sandstones, with a dip of 8° towards the north-east § ; the hard band (1), overlying porous sandstone, forms the bed of the salt-pan ; and marls (without salt) and soil cap the uppermost band. It is very difficult to obtain specimens of the numerous fossils, as they are very perishable. Both Mr. Longlands and myself failed, during a somewhat hurried visit to the locality, to obtain any.

Sandstones on the Koega River. — The sandstones on the banks of

fossil wood with Gastrochoenoe, from the Zambesi, that perfectly resemble in zoological and lithological characters these fossils from the Sundays River ; and they have their associated Selenite, as at Geelhoutboom. — T. R. J., Oct. 19, 1871.
 * Mr. G. W. Stow has sent to England specimens of Trigonia Herzogii and

† See Dr. Atherstone's " Lectures on the Geology of Uitenhage," Eastern Province Monthly Magazine, vol. i. 1857, pp. 581, 584, &c, and Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxiii. pp. 149 & 167. — T. R. J.

‡ See Dr. Atherstone's sketch section, East. Prov. Mag. loc. cit. — T. R. J.

§ The beds up the Sundays River (near Geelhoutboom), which Dr. Atherstone considers to be equivalent to those of the Saltpan, have a dip, he says (loc. cit. p. 581), of 8° to the south-west. — T. R. J.