442 FOLDING IN THE SOUTH 



place after the Ecca beds were deposited. The Uiten- 

 hage beds, lying comparatively undisturbed upon the 

 contorted strata belonging to the Cape formation, and 

 in places upon the Pre-Cape rocks, give the clearest 

 evidence for believing not only that the earth-move- 

 ments responsible for the mountain chains had done 

 their work before these beds were formed, but also that 

 a tremendous amount of rock had been removed from 

 the folded belt before that time. We have seen in 

 earlier chapters that the Dwyka and Ecca beds belong 

 to the later part of the Palaeozoic era, to the period for 

 convenience called Permo-Carboniferous, and that the 

 Uitenhage beds are of early Cretaceous age. It was 

 during the interval between those roughly denned 

 periods that the mountain building in Cape Colony 

 went on. In other countries this interval is repre- 

 sented by the Triassic and Jurassic systems, but in 

 South Africa the only beds that can be referred to these 

 are the Beaufort and Stormberg series. 



The southern folding seems to have been produced 

 by a thrust from the south towards the north, for the 

 folds, where not symmetrical, tend to turn over towards 

 the north. The minor ranges, such as the Caledon 

 Mountain, Warm Water Berg and Touw's Berg are 

 symmetrical, both limbs of the anticlines are equally 

 inclined, and the same is the case with Anysberg, the 

 western end of the Table Mountain sandstone ridge of 

 the Zwartebergen ; but in the high ranges, the main 

 portion of the Zwartebergen and the Langebergen, the 

 folds usually lean over northwards, so that both limbs 

 of any one fold dip southwards. This structure seems 



