The Stone Ages of South Africa. 39 



bouchers themselves, were found scraper-knives, from which I have 

 selected for illustration seven examples (Fig. 105, PI. XII.). 



It will be seen from these figures that the outline corresponds 

 with that of almost all implements of this nature which one meets 

 with in South Africa. 



Many of these flakes or scraper-knives are too small to have been 

 the original spUnters detached in trimming the bouchers, judging 

 from the evidence afforded by the Stellenbosch type, and they must 

 thus have been shaped intentionally, probably from a small nucleus ; 

 they were, therefore, not mere accessories. 



The great age of this Nooitgedacht deposit is not, however, 

 proved, but in what I consider to be the oldest, i.e., Cape, Draken- 

 stein, Stellenbosch, these scraper-knives are indeed very rare, yet I 

 know of some that seem to have been trimmed intentionally into 

 shape ; such a one is Fig. 93, PI. XII. This lanciform implement could 

 not, as in the majority of cases, have been hafted on account of the 

 bulging butt-end. The intention of paring this flake into a more 

 serviceable tool than the mere accessory flakes (Figs. 94 and 95), 

 found in the same locality, is apparent. At Simondium I found 

 a scraper (Fig. 96), the shape of which does not appear to be 

 accidental ; the bulb of concussion is very strong. I have also seen 

 from there two smaller ones shaped alike but not connected with 

 the large bouchers, and belonging to the more recent type. 



Near the mouth of the river Nahoon, not far from East London, 

 Mr. J. Wood has found and sent me some very large, crude bouchers 

 made of different Karroo rocks. They were found exposed, to- 

 gether with a very large number of chips of the usual flat, flake- 

 form. 



But the absence or rarity of these lanciform blades, flaking or 

 paring hammers, or of scraper-knives among the worked or partly 

 worked bouchers, wherever the deposits are found on the talus 

 of mountains or on the mamelons left in the erosion of valleys, 

 does not in the least imply that bouchers alone were manu- 

 factured in the original situation in which they were made. 

 Their absence is explained by the removal of the flakes, owing to 

 their lighter weight, occasioned by the same denuding agents to 

 w^hich, however, the very much greater size and bulk of the 

 bouchers, cores, or detaching hammers offered a greater resist- 

 ance — a physical resistance that made their downward progress 

 very slow in comparison with that of the flakes. But they would 

 ultimately reach either a flat terrace which greatly impeded their 

 downward course, as at Bosman's Crossing, or a pot-hole, as seems 



