308 THE HEIDELBERG BASIN 



running east and west. The west end of the George 

 granite is a high ridge reaching a height of perhaps 

 1,000 feet above the lowest visible portion of the con- 

 glomerates in the Brandwacht Valley to the south, and 

 a less though still considerable height above the con- 

 glomerates between it and the Langebergen. 



The sandstones of Cape St. Blaize, lying horizontally 

 and unconformably upon the Table Mountain series, 

 which dips steeply southwards, are much harder than 

 the sandy beds of the Uitenhage series usually are, but 

 not far to the west along the coast the beds are much 

 softer, very like the sandy clays that occur north-east of 

 Heidelberg. The Cape St. Blaize rocks form a narrow 

 outlier lying east and west and are separated by about 

 four miles of rough country of Table Mountain sand- 

 stone from the large area of Uitenhage beds, which are 

 exposed at sea level near Hartenbosch. 



The outlier of Uitenhage beds upon which the village 

 of Heidelberg is built is about thirty miles long from 

 east to west, and eight wide at its broadest part near 

 the west end. It stretches from the west side of the 

 Slang Kiver in Swellendam to Assegaai Bosch in Rivers- 

 dale, and both the Duivenhoek's and Kaffir Kuil's River 

 traverse it without exposing the underlying rocks. The 

 total thickness of the beds must be considerably over 

 1,000 feet, for they have a variable and low but on the 

 whole northerly dip throughout. The conglomerates 

 and sands may well have accumulated at moderate 

 angles, and sections along the new railway between 

 Heidelberg and Riversdale show masses of gravel piled 

 up very irregularly and lying between sand and clays 



