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Incwadi Yami; or, twenty years' personal experience in South Africa cover

Incwadi Yami; or, twenty years' personal experience in South Africa

Chapter 19: NOTE ON MR. G. J. LEE’S SPECIMENS OF FOSSIL WOOD FROM GRIQUALAND.
By J. W. Matthews
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About This Book

An extended firsthand account of two decades spent in southern Africa that combines travel narrative, professional observations, and local reportage. The author records medical and sanitary practice in colonial settlements, encounters with indigenous customs and ritual healers, detailed descriptions of diamond-field life and mine geology, and episodic travel through neighboring regions. Chapters alternate between personal incidents, medico-legal cases, and geological and economic reflections on mineral origins, alongside notes on administration, annexation, and social conditions in towns and mission stations, offering practical detail and observational sketches rather than grand theoretical claims.

NOTE ON MR. G. J. LEE’S SPECIMENS OF FOSSIL WOOD FROM GRIQUALAND.

“Sir: The lignite from Kimberley mine, claim 196, consists of stems or branches converted into a brittle lignite, which still preserves the original size and form of the stems, and exhibits the internal structure peculiar to coniferæ. The wood cells have a single series of discs, as in the wood of the recent pines.

“The specimens from Kimberley mine, claim 165, are more altered, and approach the condition of our Paleozoic coal. The small portions which show structure (mother coal) consist of fragments of coniferous wood, exhibiting the disciferous wood tissue with the discs in single rows. The slides from the coal of Heilbron, Vaal River, Free State, consist of wood cells, with discs in single or double and opposite rows, as in the recent pines.

“W. Carruthers,
“Botanical Department, British Museum.”—Geological Magazine, 1879, June number, p. 286.

Note.—The Paleozoic coal mentioned above was found imbedded in sandstone similar to that of the shells.