192 E. II I. Schwarz — Plains in Cape Colony. 



I am of opinion that our levels up to 2,500 feet along the 

 coast are surf-cut, but most of them where they run between 

 narrow valleys grade into bevels of river erosion, so that we 

 must not draw too line a distinction between such surfaces as are 

 cut by marine and river erosion. As, however, the dominant 

 feature of all of them is marine erosion, we can legitimately 

 call them coast ledges (fig. 5). 



Dr. Reusch has described the same phenomena in Norway 

 and uses the term Strandflade or coast plane, but plane cannot 



Fig. 5. View overlooking the coastal plateau near Plettenberg Bay. Cape 

 Colony. The ridges on the left are part of the dissected 1500-foot ledge, and 

 those beyond belong to the 700-foot ledge. The break from the one to the 

 other is shown. The crests of the moiintains behind rise to the 6000-foot 

 level, the highest peak being 5497 feet. 



in English be used for a natural surface, while plain includes 

 the ideas of both length and breadth and is inadmissible. 

 Ledge or shelf appears to me to be the only term we can use, 

 while a collection of these ledges rising step-like on the borders 

 of a continent might be called a klimakotopedion, — a stepped or 

 terraced plain. On the Atlantic border of Europe and Amer- 

 ica the klimakotopedia are submerged. 



(6) When a continent has been shaped it retains its outlines 

 for a considerable period unchanged. South Africa, including 

 the Agulhas ledge, is sharply bounded on the west by a north 

 and south coast line, and an almost straight northeasterly one 

 on the eastern side. Now there is a limit below which denu- 

 dation as regards the present history of South Africa has never 

 acted. This I have called the absolute base level of erosion. f 

 I had in view when suggesting the term the comparison of 

 the surface features of South Africa and Europe, the latter 

 with dissected topography, the other with the story of its eleva- 

 tion still so apparent in the flat tablelands, and I wished to 

 obtain some quantitative estimate of the relative positions of 



* Stanley Gardiner. J., The Indian Ocean, Geographical Journal, vol. 

 xxviii, pp. 320 ; London, 1906 ; this Journal, xvi, 203, 1903. 



f Schwarz, E. H. L., Coast Ledges in Southwest of Cape Colony, Quart. 

 Journal, Geol. Soc, vol. lxii, p. 84. London, 1906. 



