571.1 334 



V 



Evidence of the Antiquity of Man in East London, 

 Cape Colony ; with a Note on the Castor-Oil 

 Plant. 1 



ABOUT the year 1857, in opening up a quarry on the left bank 

 of the Quigney Biver, at its junction with the Buffalo, a shell 

 mound was discovered, forming a rounded bluff roughly measuring 150 

 by 150 by 40 feet deep. The mound was clothed by 18 inches of 

 made soil, masked by vegetable growth on the surface, and con- 

 tained abundance of shells of recent mollusca {Patella, Mytilus, 

 Ostrea, Haliotis, etc.), with bones of fish, birds, antelopes, hippopo- 

 tami, and other mammalia, layers of ash, fragments of charcoal, and 

 pieces of coarse pottery. No other implement of any kind was 

 found, but burnt stones were very common ; most of the deposit was 

 removed to fill up a lagoon behind the East Training Wall of the 

 Buffalo Biver. 



The locality had remained unaltered since 1827, for in 1867 

 the writer accompanied the Rev. W. B. Thomson on a visit 

 there, and heard him say that the spot was quite unchanged. The 

 same trees and the same track remained, and but for the impedi- 

 ment caused by the construction of the West Training Wall of the 

 river Mr Thomson would have undertaken to drive a bullock waggon 

 along the same track as he had done in 1827. This track, it may 

 be of interest to mention, ran in a straight line from where Mr A. 

 Webb's house now stands, to the right bank of the Quigney at its 

 mouth ; then skirting the mound, it proceeded for one hundred yards 

 along the Buffalo Biver towards the mouth, and from thence on the 

 east bank it crossed the river diagonally to the ravine at the large 

 quarry on the west bank. 



So far as is known this kitchen-midden is the most recent trace 

 of primitive man at East London, and yet must be in itself of vast 

 antiquity. 



Passing to the back of the new jail one sees a small excavation 

 in the railway cutting, which in 1887 was covered with castor-oil 



[ l The following personal observations by Mr Geo. R. M'Kay, relative to discoveries of 

 ancient man in East London, have been forwarded to the editor by Dr Schiinland. 

 They formed part of a lecture delivered in 1887, and the editor is glad to put them on 

 record.] 





