24 Annals of the South African Museum. 



stein Valley of the Cape Colony and elsewhere, as to almost justify 

 the belief that the makers, satisfied that the stones could be of 

 service at that stage, gave them merely a preliminary paring until 

 they had either the time, or had acquired the skill necessary for 

 transforming them into that tongue- or amygdaloidal- shaped boucher 

 which is equal to the best x\cheulean, the rarity of which among 

 roughly shaped objects seems to point to the difficulty inherent to, 

 or the skill requisite for, their finish. 



A careful inspection of the numerous artificially worked, originally 

 rounded or water-worn boulders of the Simondium " station," indi- 

 cates that the ultimate shape of the boucher depended mostly on the 

 manner of the fracture. 



Thus, in Fig. 68, PI. X., a fragment has been detached from a 

 river boulder in the manner shown. The face of the detached part 

 is nearly even, the fracture of the left side is irregular ; in the side 

 view (Fig. 69), the convex part of the fracture corresponds with, or is 

 akin to, the concave part of Fig. 72. On the right side of Fig. 69 the 

 marks of blows delivered in detaching the flake are very noticeable. 



This fact does away with the rock-heating and cold-water-throwing 

 hypothesis. 



So much, then, for the preliminary fracture. Let us now try to 

 realise what the ultimate shape of this implement would have been, 

 had the "knapper" been allowed to finish it. 



The pointed part is already obtained ; paring the butt would 

 probably be the next step, because a comparison with Figs. 74 and 

 73 shows that the reduction of the butt-end has been effected in the 

 manner suggested before the greatest part of the original surface of 

 Fig. 73 was chipped. 



The boucher would be greatly reduced in size by this operation, 

 but its utility as a hand-pick would have been increased rather than 

 impaired by the smooth, even, original surface being retained on one 

 side instead of being facetted as on the other. In the Simondium 

 " station " these " bouchers " pared on one side only were, as I have 

 already remarked, very numerous, but together with them I found 

 there also some of our best finished examples (Fig. 5, PI. I.). 

 Fig. 20, PI. III., comes also from the same spot. In the Eerste 

 Eiver Valley I met with the same experience. 



Great importance attaches to the fragment Fig. 68 (face view), 

 69 (side view), PI. X., because, unlike what is alleged for European 

 bouchers, and other implements of the Mousterian type, the upper 

 face has not been fashioned first and then detached. This conclusion 

 is borne out by most implements of that kind which I examined. 



