Dr. A. Smith on the Origin and History of the Bushmen. 197 



changed its course often enough to bear the gravel to all the 

 points now constituting the hill tops, since they are by no 

 means in any single line. Next, we must suppose the Thames 

 still wandering from bed to bed, to have excavated down to 

 the present level, that is, some 400 or 500 feet, a district of 

 several thousand square miles. And lastly, to have univer- 

 sally distributed the gravel over the surface so excavated : yet, 

 since in the time of the Romans, Londinium was already an 

 emporium, the river has been remarkably reclaimed from the 

 fickle habits of its youth, having been ever constant to a single 

 channel ; and the camps of that people on Wimbledon Com- 

 mon and Holwood Hill have resisted the atmospheric action 

 of some eighteen centuries, without material degradation. 



I have, about a year since, in a paper communicated to the 

 Geological Society on the valley of the Thames, of which 

 an analysis was given in this Journal at the time 5 *, mentioned 

 instances connected with that valley, in which the diluvial peb- 

 bles must have been derived from districts having their drain- 

 age in directions exactly opposite to that by which they must 

 have been transported to their present locality. 

 (To be continued.) 



XXXVI. Observations relative to the Origin and History of the 

 Bushmen. By ANDREW SMITH, M.D. M. W.S. fyc. 



r T^ 



* 



[Continued from p. 

 language spoken by the Bushmen is decidedly a dia- 



lect or dialects of that in use amongst the Hottentots else- 

 where; but in most situations is so altered and modified, as 

 that its origin and dependence can scarcely be traced. Some 

 express themselves almost exactly in the same manner as the 

 Namaquas ; others by the same words, only with a peculiar 

 pronunciation, and a third division in a style partly varied by 

 the mode of utterance, and partly by the introduction of new 

 words or expressions either resorted to for the purpose of com- 

 municating newly acquired ideas, or with the design of confu- 

 sing their tongue and rendering it only intelligible to the mem- 

 bers of their own communities. Of the three, the latter mo- 

 dification is by far the most general, and forms what is known 

 amongst the colonists by the appellation "Cnese tal." From 

 the plan just adverted to being frequently adopted, and consi- 

 dered as of advantage in carrying on their dangerous and un- 

 lawful exploits, very considerable modifications are even cur- 



* See Phil. Mag. and Annals, N.S. vol. vi. p. 61. 



rent 



