336 NATURAL SCIENCE [November 



Out of this deposit I have myself taken three well-formed stone 

 spear heads of the ' Moustier ' type. They were at the level of low 

 water, and in a position where they must have at one time been 

 covered by 180 feet of the deposit. One of these is still in my 

 possession, one is in the Albany Museum, and the third was given 

 to a friend, who subsequently sent it to Sir John Lubbock. These 

 aeolian deposits extend, so far as my own observations go, to a dis- 

 tance of certainly one mile into the ocean from the present shore. 

 Between Sand Hill and Bats' Cave the low water platform has been 

 cut back in many places for a width of over 200 yards by wave 

 action. A visit to Cove Rock on a calm day will verify this if one 

 stands on the larger of the two masses forming the rock-face on the 

 south, for there one will see a similar platform, only at a much 

 lower level, extending as far as the eye can follow it. The sub- 

 merged reef off Nahoon Point is of this aeolian formation, and the 

 sea has been observed to break on it upwards of a mile from the 

 shore, while the Sisters and Fountain Rocks are really small isolated 

 masses three-quarters of a mile from present low-water line. About 

 one-third of the distance from the Sand Hill to Bats' Cave there 

 is an isolated mass of this formation which becomes an island at 

 high water ; on the land-face of this mass there is a heap of shells 

 embedded 12 feet above high- water mark. This is about 12 feet 

 long by 3 feet thick, and contains, besides shells, fish bones and 

 splintered bones of mammals ; and although there are no traces of 

 ashes or charred wood, I am satisfied myself as to its artificial 

 deposition. 



The facts concerning the aeolian deposit enumerated above leads 

 us to the following conclusions. Since the three spear heads were lost 

 we have to account for a depression of the land and advance of the 

 shore-line for at least a mile, and from the average inclination of the 

 bed of the Indian Ocean at this point, that means a land depression 

 of over 50 feet. Then we have to allow for the gradual emergence 

 of the land, which has enabled the sea to cut the rock back for a 

 distance of a mile, up to its present level, which it has maintained 

 long enough for the sea to cut a platform over 200 yards in width. 



Geo. R. M'Kay. 



East London, W., South Africa. 



