PHYSICAL aEOGRA-PHT OF THE CAPE COLONY. 



261 



Fig. 3. — Section north of Aberdeen, showing the Junction of the 



Karoo and Ecca Beds, 



s.E. N.w. 



(3) Buff soft sandstone, containing much decomposed felspar ; 



bi'eccia at base, with fragments of (1) j- Ivaroo Beds. 



(2) Sandy shale and thin sandstones. 



(1 ) Grey, purple, red, and mottled claystones Ecca Beds. 



crop of the sandstones ; and in the clear air the course of these 

 sheets can be easily followed by the eye, and their intrusive cha- 

 racter established. Between the hills lie broad flat-bottomed valleys 

 and extensive plains, deeply buried in rich alluvial soil, which rain 

 has been for ages sweeping down on to them. I have very little 

 doubt that in many cases the floor of these flats is formed of Xim- 

 berley Shales ; and in crossing them I had my suspicions constantly 

 aroused that denudation had cut down into Ecca Beds ; but the 

 superficial covering was so thick that I never got a section which 

 showed conclusively what was beneath it. 



Among the most important of the hill-ranges of the belt are the 

 Nieuwveldt mountains, north of Beaufort West, one point of which 

 is 7300 feet above the sea ; the Camdeboo mountains, north of 

 Aberdeen ; and the Compass-Berg, north of Graaf-Reinet, 7800 feet. 

 In the Stormbergen, to the north of Queenstown, which is a con- 

 tinuation of this belt, the whole of the Stormberg beds come on, and 

 a height of 7250 feet is reached in their culminating point, Vaal 

 Kop, about 1 2 miles east of Molteno. Further to the north-east, 

 in the Draakensberg, still greater elevations are attained. 



The absolute elevation of the highest points of this belt above the 

 plains on the north and south will be, in the Cape Colony, between 

 3000 and 4000 feet ; they are all of them purely hills carved out 

 by denudation, and they stand as speaking witnesses of what denu- 

 dation can do, and of the enormous lapse of time during which it 

 must have been at work in this country *. 



It is also interesting to note how thoroughly the work has been 

 done, and how completely the Karoo Beds have been cleared away 

 off the country to the south and north ; outliers do occur in the im- 

 mediate neighbourhood of the main range, but, with one possible 

 exception, I saw none at any distance from it. That one possible 

 exception was a very conspicuous hill, known as the 8choorstein 



* Rubidge. Geological Magazine, vol. iii. (ISOf)), p. 88. 



