.450 Annals of the SoutJt, African Museum. 



base. It is almost invariably fine-grained and is composed of grains 

 of quartz-sub-rounded to angular in outline - - with grains of felspar 

 and mica and small crystals of zircon, garnet, and rntile. 



Griquoland East. The thickness in this area is very variable. In 

 the North-East, near the Natal border, it lias a maximum thickness 

 of 800 feet, while westwards it thins in one place to 50 feet, In 

 the Tsitsana Reserve its thickness is 300 feet yet at places near by 

 falls to 100 feet, This variability Is due in part to the outpouring 

 of lavas before the close of the formation of the sandstone - - in 

 places sandstone is found intercalated with lava-flows. 



The sandstone is generally uniformly white to creamy in colour 

 occasionally being pink or red especially towards the base. The basal 

 portion is well-bedded and at a few places rests unconformably on 

 the Red Beds. The base frequently exhibits false-bedding. 



Natal. At Hlatiknlu Hill the (lave Sandstone is 190 feet thick, 

 and at the top has a gritty zone overlain by basalt. 



According to Churchill (1898) the thickness varies in the stretch 

 between the head of the Bushman's River and Mont anx Sources 

 from 1 200 feet to (100 feet, while at the south end of Thaba'Mhlope 

 it is 800 feet thick. The rock there is compact, hard and gritty, 

 usually cream or white in colour, but sometimes light red. and 

 occasionally carries a "few round, hard sandstone nodules, often cont- 

 aining a little pyrites". At the base of the formation is a 6- 10 ft. 

 thick bed of a rather friable, light-coloured marly sandstone resting 

 on a 5-15 ft. thick bed of nodular sandstone. This may be taken 

 as the base of the Cave Sandstone as it rests on a "deep, pink, 

 earthy layer". 



Transvaal. 



The Stormberg Series in the Transvaal is preserved as a number 

 of outliers, forming the Bushveld Series, of which the most important 

 occur on the Springbok Flats, the Komati Poort Coalfield, in the 

 area North of the Zoutpansberg, and in the Limpopo Valley. The 

 features of the series in each of the areas will be briefly outlined. 



Springbok Flats. Mellor in 1905 gave an account of the sandstones 

 of Buiskop and the Springbok Flats, which are overlain by the 

 Mushveld Amygdaloid. He stated that the sandstones of the Springbok- 

 Flats are universally rather fine in grain and uniform in texture, 

 rarely, if ever, gritty, and contain no conglomerates or pebblewashes 

 except, possibly, at the extreme base. They are peculiarly massive 



