Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 27.djvu/681

 will prove to be older titan the clays of the Salt-Vlei section, and probably equivalent to those of Bethelsdorp.

At one of the meetings of the Natural-History Society of Port Elizabeth, Dr. Rubidge published a section (Section S, fig. 6,3), near the Salt Vlei (see a notice of their Proceedings in the ' Port-Elizabeth Telegraph'), at the top of which is a bed of clay, "No. 1, apparently about one foot." This is the stratum in which Messrs. Kemsley and Burness discovered the Ferns (see above, p. 510). " The stratum of clay which contained the Ferns rested on a sandstone containing immense fragments of leaflets and petioles of Zamioe, mixed with pieces of wood, and that on a clay with shells (Tellina, Orbicula [?], Myacites [Pleuromya], Ostrea, (&c.) ; no 2, some three feet thick. Below this was a shelly sandstone, containing Turritella Rubidgeana (Tate), with imperfect specimens of Trigonia Goldfussi, and a new species of Gervillia. The discovery of these shells, which are on the opposite hill (near Mr. Graham's house) associated with Cidaris pustulifera (Tate), at the Bethelsdorp Saltpan with the same and with Crassatella complicata (Tate), Ostrea Jonesii (Tate), and at the Zwartkops Heights with Trigonioe, Astarte, &c, is of great interest, as showing clearly the relation of the whole series of the beds of the ancient Mesozoic bay to each other."

I wrote to the late Dr. Rubidge upon this subject immediately after the publication of the report, to ask him his opinion whether this did not confirm the conclusion I had already arrived at from the study of the dip. Unfortunately I did not receive an answer.

Distribution of Fossils in the several members of the Uitenhage Formation, according to the corrected lists of named species. — T. R. J.

I.

1. Near the mouth of Sundays River

2. Higher up Sundays River

II.

Zwartkops River

III.

" Lowest strata of the Zwartkops Crag (cliff)"

IV.

Saliferous strata

Species yielded.

28

62?

46

28

15

9?

Species peculiar.

12

29

9

9

3

Community of species between

1 & 2 =12?

I. & II. = 16

I. with II. & III. = 6?

I. & IV.= 2?

II. & III. = 0

II. & IV. = 0

III. & IV. = 1?

C. Conclusion. — Let us now take a retrospect of the various fossiliferous beds I have mentioned. In the lowest Zwartkops stratum no Trigonioe, as far as I can learn, have been discovered, and certainly not the Crassatella complicata, Hamites, and some other shells. As we proceed upwards Trigonioe become abundant, and increase in number of species. Ammonites also become frequent in some strata. At M'Loughlin's Bluff on the Sundays River Hamites africanus,

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