THE GEOLOGY OF SOUTH AFRICA:

xiv, 611 pages: illustrations, tables, maps (some folding, 1 colour folding laid down on rear
endpaper). Cloth, dust wrapper worn on edges and with chips. It is ill-fitting and so very seldom present. Originally published in 1926.

Du Toit (1878-1948) attended Bishops, UCT and Glasgow University before working as a geologist in Cape Town from 1903. In 1927 he became consulting geologist for De Beers. He penned numerous academic articles and textbooks during his lifetime and was internationally known and respected. He was granted honorary doctorates by three South African universities and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society. This work has been reprinted a number of times. His other publication of note, OUR WANDERING CONTINENTS, was controversial when published. His hypothesis was carefully crafted and relied not only on his geological experience, but also his substantial botanical knowledge of what plants grew in what sediment. It focused on the southern hemisphere, which had been ignored hitherto by northern hemisphere scholars. At the time of publication, few people believed in continental drift, believing rather that "things are there because they are there" or as a result of meteors or an explosion. At the conclusion of this work, he predicted the discovery of minerals, and probably oil, in Antarctica. A man ahead of his times.