214 MOLTENO BEDS 



hills ; the slopes below them are usually strewn with 

 great rectangular blocks which have broken off and 

 tumbled down. 



The lowest of these coarse glittering sandstones has 

 been termed the "Indwe-Sandstone," and forms a reli- 

 able bench-mark from which the horizons of the different 

 coal outcrops can be denned. 



The finer grained varieties of sandstone are, as a rule, 

 not so well exposed, as they are friable and tend to form 

 a light sandy soil. They are of a yellowish grey or cream 

 colour and furnish a good building stone. Fencing poles 

 are split from the large sandstone slabs by driving in 

 wedges along straight lines across a slab and breaking 

 it along the row of holes. Posts up to six feet in length 

 are thus easily obtained. 



The coarse gritty sandstones occasionally become con- 

 glomeratic, the pebbles consisting principally of vein- 

 quartz and of quartzite. 



A peculiar feature is the occurrence in the Molteno 

 sandstones of smooth rounded or oval pebbles usually a 

 few inches across but occasionally ranging up to boulders 

 a couple of feet in diameter. They are, as -a rule, 

 scattered irregularly through the sandstones, but in the 

 Molteno Division they are specially abundant along a cer- 

 tain horizon and form a bed of conglomerate a few feet 

 in thickness. The pebbles are sometimes found resting 

 upon a coal seam and partly imbedded in the base of 

 the sandstone overlying the coal. 



The pebbles are almost entirely of white or brownish, 

 sometimes glassy, quartzites like those of the Witteberg 

 or Table Mountain series. They are most abundant to 



