132 THE SHALE BANDS 



At the last-mentioned locality and in its vicinity pebbles 

 of red jasper are abundant. 



In the Peninsula and Stellenbosch areas the base of 

 the Table Mountain series is usually a red micaceous 

 gritty shale. On the north face of Table Mountain this 

 is often the first rock met with at the junction with the 

 granite or Malmesbury beds, though a thin layer of 

 arkose is found in places directly overlying the granite. 

 In many parts of the L/angebergen there is a thick band 

 of shaly beds near the base of the series, but the lowest 

 beds are usually quartzites (see Plate I.). On the 

 Montagu Pass the shales near the bottom of the series 

 are exposed in the road cutting, and are found to be 

 a crumpled silky phyllite or schist, in which the silky 

 appearance is due to the development of minute flakes 

 of a micaceous mineral. 



A second shale band is found about 1,000 feet below 

 the top of the series. The shales are usually hidden by 

 debris from the sandstone cliffs above them, and it is 

 only on road cuttings and tracks across its outcrop that 

 the rocks forming the shale band can be well seen. The 

 shales are exposed on the Mitchell's Pass road, where 

 they are deeply weathered into a red micaceous sandy 

 clay. 



In the French Hoek Mountains there are black slates 

 with pebbles on about the same horizon. In the Willow- 

 more and Uniondale country there is a difficulty in 

 distinguishing between these upper shales and the 

 Bokkeveld beds, owing to their lithological similarity 

 and to the fact that the Lower Bokkeveld beds have been 

 folded in amongst the Table Mountain series forming 



