158 THE WITTEBERG SERIES 



The Bokkeveld beds do not furnish any stone or 

 minerals of much economic value. The sandstones are 

 used for making walls round kraals and camps, and to 

 a small extent for house-building on farms. Their 

 colour is too dark and patchy, and as a rule they are 

 too fissile and difficult to work to be used when any 

 other building materials are obtainable. 



The country occupied by this series is generally well 

 populated, for the soil is rich. The shales break down 

 into good soil, hence the positions of the thicker bands 

 of shale are usually marked by lands and gardens, often 

 with a dip slope of the Table Mountain sandstone on 

 the one hand and an escarpment of the Bokkeveld sand-- 

 stones on the other. 



Springs are more numerous along the junction of the 

 Table Mountain sandstone and the Bokkeveld beds than 

 elsewhere in the neighbourhood, and although many of 

 the springs yield " kruid water," i.e., water with the 

 smell of sulphuretted hydrogen, due to the mutual de- 

 composition of pyrites and the organic matter in the 

 shales in the presence of moisture, they are very valu- 

 able sources of water. This peculiarity of the water is 

 the cause of so many farms being called " Stink Fontein," 

 a name that recurs again and again on the Bokkeveld 

 areas as well as on other rocks, such as the Dwyka and 

 Ecca beds, the water from which has frequently the 



same characteristic. 







3. THE WITTEBEEG SERIES. 



The Witteberg series consist of sandstones, quart- 

 zites, and shales. The sandstones and quartzites are in 

 thicker groups than those of the Bokkeveld beds, and 



