Page:South African Geology - Schwarz - 1912.djvu/148

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138
SOUTH AFRICAN GEOLOGY

beds of white quartz pebbles, as at Table Mountain and Oudtshoorn, and these sometimes become regular bands of conglomerate (banket) as at Knysna.

The Table Mountain Sandstone is 5000 ft. thick in its fullest development at Ceres. Northwards it becomes thinner, and eventually wedges out to nothing. At


Fig. 38. — The Witzenbergen from the top of the Schurftebergen, showing the steeply inclined Table Mountain Sandstone near the head of the Witzenberg valley, and the Shale Band at the top of that rock series

Pakhuis Pass, where the road passes into the Olifant's River (Clanwilliam), and along the coast at Van Rhynsdorp, there are coarse conglomerates at the base, showing that the actual beach along the shore was close by. The northern shore has not been satisfactorily traced.

The Table Mountain Sandstone forms the grand chains of coastal mountains which bar the way to the interior along the south-west and southern shores of South Africa. It forms the top of Table Mountain and the greater portion of the Cape Peninsula. On the mainland