TiiE l-AULT SVSTliAiS IN SUUTii OF SOUTH AFRICA. .^8l 



those of the inner ones, then we must assume that the lioor on 

 which t!io former was deoosited was his/her than that on wliioh 

 the latter were. That is to say, when the deposits of the inner 

 zone were heing laid down, the outer margin from Worcester 

 to Knysna was elevated, and not till the whole series of the 

 Uitenhage beds had been laid down in the two inner lines of 

 basins did deposition begin in t!ie outer zone. 1 he whole 

 country sank as an iceberg would sink if weighted ; there is 

 no evidence for any difference in the earth-movements of an 

 •elevator}- or subsiding nature in tlie east and west, in all the 

 movements we have yet been able to study in Soi:th Africa, in 

 contrast to the more recent movements in South America, 

 wliere the elevation on the side of the Andes has been greater 

 than on the Atlantic side. There is nothing unnatural iio 

 assiuning that there was a greater depression in and around the 

 the great mountain ranges along the south coast than on the 

 margin towards the sea. If w'e work out the problem in 

 figures tlie elevations in feet are somewhat alarming, but when. 

 we come to consider the elevations and subsidences in the land 

 in Miocene and Pliocene times, subsecjuent to these earlier 

 movements, there is little to cavil at. With the base of 

 the cretaceous dej^osits in the two inner lines of fault-pits at 

 an original level of 4,000 feet above sea-level, in order to have 

 the conglomerates of Seal Point contemporary with the Sunday's 

 River marine beds at Addo, the base of these would Ije ori- 

 ginally 6,500 feet, assuming tJiat the thicknesses of the Uiten- 

 hage beds are ^,000 feet. Thus: — 



Uitenhage Bastn. Seal P(iixt. 



Sunday's River marine beds, 



500 feet 1-^non conglomerate. 



with Tr'u!0)iia conocard'ti- with Trigonla conocardii- 



fonitis. fonnis. 



Wood bed, 500 feet \ 



Enon conglomerate, 2.000 feet|_ original base 6,500 feet above 

 'Original base above present! present sea-level, 



sea-level, 4,000 feet . . . . ' 



To the total of the 7,000 feet submergence there must be 

 added a further 2,000 feet to account for the covering of middle 

 and upper cretaceous and Eocene beds w'hich there is reason 

 to believe at one time lay on top of the lower cretaceous deposits 

 •of Uitenhage; all signs of these later deposits have been denuded 

 away in Cape Colony, but remnants of them are still preserved 

 in Zululand and ^ladagascar. 



I have not wished to touch on the matter of the faults in 

 the East, in Pondoland and Zululand, because there are some 

 <lis(]uicting features which would take us too far out of the 



