On some Fossils from South Africa

Abstract

Abstract A t the close of 1850 Mr. Stow and his party fell back into the interior to avoid the Kaffirs; in making the journey he collected largely the fossils on his route, and succeeded, with much trouble, in preserving them on his return. In a plain at the foot of the Rhenosterberg, a branch of the Sneewbergen Range (of which latter the Spitzkop is the culminating point), the author met with patches of ground strewed with nodular concretions and fossil wood (specimens 2 to 63) over an extent of about two miles in length and one in width. These fossils were on the surface, and had been probably derived from the neighbouring mountains. The plain was of a lozenge-shape, about twelve miles broad and twenty long; and was one of several of a similar kind that he had travelled through. It was bounded by the Rhenosterberg Mountains on the N.E., on the S.W. by a nearly parallel range, and on the S.E. was contracted to a narrow valley between low rocky hills. Two low volcanic dykes crossed the plain, one on the north-western, and the other on the south-eastern side. The strata forming the mountains are horizontal. There are about eight strata of sandstone forming the lower part of the Rhenosterberg. Immediately above there is a limestone full of rounded fragments of other calcareous and non-calcareous rocks, and sometimes containing bones (specimens 64, 65, 66). Of this pebbly limestone, or calcareous grit, there are four layers, separated one from another by several yards of strata, and varying in thickness from a few inches to about a foot. The mountains on the opposite side of the plain are apparently composed of the same strata as the Rhenosterberg; for, taking a commanding position on one of the dykes, one can distinctly count the strata in the mountains on either side ; and so uniform are they in colour and thickness, so alike in height, and equally horizontal in position, that the idea at once forces itself upon the mind that they must at one time have been continuous. At one spot on the side of the Rhenosterberg is a Kloof where the author found some fossils imbedded in the rock; and he often regretted when visiting the spot that the Kaffirs had left him nothing but a hammer and old chisel that were thrown into the waggon at starting, as with better tools he might have obtained many more specimens. Here he found the specimens 68, 69, which appear to be casts of stems of plants in sandstone. The first bones he here discovered were those of the skeleton, specimen No. 83 (a small Dieynodon). They were directly in the water-course, and only a small piece of one part was at first visible. By dint of hammering and chiseling each succeeding portion revealed itself to view. Unfortunately the skull was wanting. Underneath a large part of it there was a whitish scaly appearance on the rock, which might have been the remains of the covering that the animal had when alive. Many portions of the strata here were matted together with the stem-like fossils, such as specimens 70-75. Specimens 76 to 82 (nodular concretions)appear to have been washed from the same strata.