CHAPTER II. 



THE PEE-CAPE BOOKS OF THE SOUTH AND WEST OF THE 



COLONY. 



THE various groups of rocks included under this heading 

 have one character in common, they are older than the 

 Cape formation. In the case of four of the groups, 

 Ibiquas, Cango and Malmesbury, their Pre-Cape age 

 is obvious from the fact that they are found directly 

 beneath the Table Mountain series ; but in the case of 

 the other groups, which are found in a region where 

 the Cape formation was either not deposited or has 

 since been removed by denudation, their age has to be 

 arrived at by reasonings based upon the structural 

 features of the country, for no help in correlating these 

 formations is given by fossils. 



1. THE MALMESBURY SERIES. 



In the south-western districts of Cape Colony the 

 oldest rocks are those to which the name Malmesbury 

 beds was given by E. J. Dunn. Consisting chiefly of 

 slates and quartzites, they were intensely disturbed, in- 

 vaded by granite and other igneous rocks, and exposed 

 to prolonged denudation before the deposition of the 

 Table Mountain sandstone. 



In the immediate neighbourhood of Cape Town the 



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