22 THE MALMESBURY SERIES 



Table Mountain sandstone, which forms all the higher 

 parts of the Peninsula, lies nearly horizontally, and be- 

 low it are seen slaty rocks dipping at very high angles, 

 with a general north-north-westerly strike, accompanied 

 by a large intrusion of granite. The slaty rocks are 

 found to extend northwards at least as far as the northern 

 boundary of Van Rhyn's Dorp where the huge area oc- 

 cupied by the Namaqualand granite is entered upon. 

 This large area of Malmesbury beds occupies the greater 

 part of the divisions of Malmesbury, Piquetberg, Paarl, 

 Stellenbosch, and Somerset West. A strip of similar 

 rocks forms the low ground in the Tulbagh valley. 

 Near the town of Worcester the strip becomes narrower 

 and extends south-eastwards as far as Swellendam, a 

 distance of seventy miles, as a band averaging about two 

 miles in width overlain to the north-east by the Table 

 Mountain sandstone of the Langebergen, but cut off 

 on the south-west by the great Worcester fault which 

 has a downthrow of over 12,000 feet near the town of 

 Worcester (Fig. 1). Inliers of similar rocks have been 

 found at Eland's Kloof (near Villiersdorp), in the Zon- 

 dag's Kloof east of Stanford (Caledon Division), and 

 between Elim and Bredasdorp ; each of these inliers is 

 surrounded by the sandstones of the Table Mountain 

 series. Rocks that can best be placed with the Malmes- 

 bury beds are found in Mossel Bay, George, and near 

 Port Elizabeth. 



The most abundant rock in the series is a blue 

 arenaceous clay-slate, or very fine-grained argillaceous 

 quartzite with imperfectly developed cleavage. Small 



