ECONOMIC GEOLOGY 461 



Building Stone. Considering the great development of 

 sandstones in it the Cape Colony is apparently badly off 

 for building stone. The chief reason probably is that 

 but few quarries have been opened, so that the rocks in 

 an unweathered state are not well known. 



The Table Mountain sandstone furnishes a good rough 

 building stone in many places, especially where it has 

 not been disturbed by earth-movements, and the rock 

 is therefore free from planes of shear. Owing to the 

 quantity of unsuitable material that has often to be re- 

 moved in quarrying it is not used so much as one might 

 expect from the wide distribution of the formation. 

 Rock from Table Mountain and the mountains to the 

 south is largely used for foundations in the Peninsula, 

 and to a smaller extent for buildings (e.g., Huguenot 

 Memorial Buildings in Cape Town) ; the Harbour Board 

 Offices in Cape Town were built of stone from Grabouw 

 just beyond Sir Lowry's Pass. 



Good freestone is obtained from the Dwyka series 

 close to Modder River Station, and from the Beaufort 

 beds near Beaufort West, Fort Beaufort, Graaff 

 Reinet, Kingwilliamstown, and Queenstown (University 

 Offices in Cape Town and the new laboratories at the 

 South African College), and there seems to be no 

 reason why as good stone should not be obtained at 

 various points along the Midland Railway system as 

 well, such as at Naauwpoort, Steynsburg, etc. 



The Molteno sandstones are usually very coarse in 

 texture though easily worked, but a good freestone is re- 

 presented in the Cave sandstone, a formation which is un- 

 fortunately only accessible at Lady Grey (Aliwal North). 



