THE PHYSIOGRAPHY OF AN AREA ADJOINING CAPE MACLEAR

Abstract

The level ground or isthmus at approximately 200 ft. (61 m.) above sea-level at Cape Maclear is not regarded as a wave-cut platform it its present form, neither are the sandstone ledges and rounded pebbles on the slopes to the north considered to be raised marine benches and beaches. The isthmus, which coincides with a synclinal axis in the Table Mountain Series, was cuestiform until built up by blown sand from the north-west. On the Palaeolithic site to the north this sand invasion occurred during the Middle Stone Age. The cliffs in the west date from the Minor Emergence of Krige (1927) and the rock ledges and caves at Cape Maclear and Cape Point denote a pause at between 12 and 14 ft. (4 m.) in the subsequent withdrawal. The dune invasion which followed suggests that the regression continued below present sea-level, so indicating an interglacial age for the Minor Emergence and the succeeding sub-stage. A shingle beach which marks the limit of the succeeding recovery of sea-level may embrace a small post-glacial regression.