News and Views

Abstract

THE fifteenth International Geological Congress meets at Pretoria on July 29, 1929. As the British Association for the Advancement of Science is visiting South Africa at the same time, and has secured a large contribution from Government, professional people and the mining houses have raised a substantial sum privately as a guarantee for the Congress; the local committee is therefore able to offer subsidies towards the expenses of visiting members, as well as a reduction of from 35-50 per cent, in the railway fares. Negotiations are in progress with the shipping companies for similar concessions, the results of which will be announced later. So heavy have been the calls on the community in South Africa that an urgent appeal is issued to everyone who can, to apply for membership of the Congress, addressed to the General Secretary, Post Office Box 391, Pretoria, South Africa. The membership fee is one pound. The main discussions at the meeting will be on magmatic differentiation, pre-Pleistocene glaciation, and the genesis of petroleum, but the most attractive feature will be the excursions, which have been arranged so as to cover all the classic areas. At Cape Town will be seen the intrusions of granite into slate, described by Basil Hall in 1813, which were used by Dr. Hutton in illustration of his theory. North of this are the folded mountains, bringing down the Devonian beds, with fossils of an American type. On the margin of the Karroo occurs the Permian glacial deposit, the Dwyka Conglomerate, which will be seen in its full development. Later excursions will enable the members to see the Lower Cretaceous at Uitenhage, and the enormously fossiliferous Cretaceous rocks of Zululand. In the Transvaal, the Bushveld Laccolite dominates the stratigraphy, with its margin of basic rocks containing platinum. Three subsidiary structures are of special interest, the Pretoria soda caldera, the Pilandsberg, and the Vredefort granite mass.