THE KARROO SYSTEM 211 



4. THE STORMBERG SERIES. 



In the east of the Colony and in Basutoland there is 

 a great thickness of sandstone and shales capped by 

 volcanic rocks and broadly distinguished from the under- 

 lying Beaufort beds by the presence of a different group 

 of fossil reptiles and plants. 



The name Stormberg beds was applied to these rocks 

 by Wyley and Huxley, and it has been used by all later 

 writers. 1 The series is divided up into the following 

 groups in descending order: 



Maximum thickness. 



4. Drakensberg beds (volcanic) . . 4,000 feet. 



3. Cave sandstone ..... 800 



2. Red beds 1,600 



1. Molteno beds 2,000 ,, 



The Molteno Beds. 



The Molteno beds are first met with at a point a little 

 to the east of Steynsburg and form the higher-lying 

 ground in the Division of Molteno ; they extend along 

 the foot of the Stormbergen into Herschel, the Orange 

 Kiver Colony, and Basutoland, and along the base of the 

 Drakensbergen through East Griqualand into Natal. 



The formation consists of sandstones, shales and mud 

 stones, the softer beds being much like those of the Ecca 

 and Beaufort, grey, greenish or bluish in colour, but 

 without the calcareous concretions so abundant in the 

 lower groups. 



Fossil plants are in places abundant, but seem if any- 

 thing to be more plentiful in the lower half of the 



1 For detailed accounts of the Stormberg series, see G. C., vii., viii., 

 ix., x. 



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