Tlie Stone Ayes oj South At'iuu. 7 



equal to the best Acheuleaii. Wo have a cleiiving-stone surpass- 

 ing the best Mousteiiiui ; a rude, irregular stone with cutting edges 

 tixed with a gum-cement to a wooden handle in the manner obtain- 

 ing among the Australian al)origines ; arrows, tlie cutting or piercing 

 heads of whicli is obtained Ijy minute chips set in a trianguhir piece 

 of siujihir gum-cement, a few arrow-lieads with tang, worked on l)oth 

 sides ; and a ground axe of neolithic type are aiso recorded. 



The evolution in the manufacture of these tools took proljably 

 a very long time in South Africa, as elsewhere. I have already ex- 

 pressed my belief,'' based on purely antiquarian grounds, and 

 according to the tenets of the classification generally accepteil, that 

 " we have in South .\frica evidence of two periods : a pahi'ulithic 

 and a i-ecent one, which I hesitated to term neolithic; but that there 

 is no evidence as to the time when the former was replaced by the 

 latter, and moreover, that this point will remain for long conjec- 

 tural." In a word, a very ancient race had peopled Africa at the 

 palaeolithic stage. One or more races have supervened, possibly 

 absorbed the former, and perhaps replaced it. 



Unfortunately, neither geology nor paUeontology has been able 

 to give us, so far, a clue to the possible age of the South African 

 finds. Tlie question is still more complicated owing to material of 

 a paleaiolithic type of the highest finish, as well as of ruder kind, 

 having been found in valleys where old river terraces cannot be 

 traced, as well as where river terraces exist, or are said to exist. 



Then, alongside of these we have implements quite modern, as 

 will be seen subsequently, and yet so primitive in appearance that 

 one can excuse, yet not agree with, those antiquarians who, re- 

 quiring a beginning to everything, have postulated that thorny suljject 

 an " eolithic " age preceding or accompanying the "Strep\an." 

 Nor does the ditlerence in composition of the material of which the 

 implements are made help us to elucidate the point of antiquity. A 

 hand-pick of dolerite will be weathered to a stage of unrecognilion, 

 while a quartzite one will, during the same time, merely acquire a 

 patina, or polish ; a chert or banded jasper tool will remain almost as 

 fresh as when made, while a diabasic one will become deeply jtitted 

 or smoothed under similar conditions. 



Eolian agencies have also to be taken into serious consideration, 

 in a country where desiccation has been in progress, especially in the 



* " The Sto'ie Age in South Africa," in "Science in South .\(rica," Cape Town, 

 190-5, a publication prepared for tlie visit of the British Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science. The present paper is an enlarj;enient of the necessarily highly 

 condensed precis I then gave of our knowledge of the question. 



