The Stone Ages of South Africa. 



41 



moreover, so small that they preclude the possibility of the stones 

 liaving been used as pounders or mullers after the manner of those 

 of the recent period, such as Figs. 168 and 170, PI. XXIII. No 

 mortar or quern has been as yet found in these deposits. There is 

 also no justification for seeing in them the precursors of the rounded 

 or Hat stones perforated in the centre and called " ! kwe " (Figs. 

 152 to 160, Pis. XX.-XXI.). 



Doubtless these rounded pebbles (Figs. 80, 81, 82, 83. PI. XI.) 

 owe their shape wholly or in part to physical agents, such as 

 the displacement and friction of boulders caused by the torrential 

 river-flows that, in the majority of cases, form in South Africa the 

 short rivers or streams which, well-nigh dry most of the time, 

 become impetuous torrents at others. 



One such pebble, tri-facetted, I found in the temporarily dry bed 

 of the Eerste Eiver (Cape Colony) among large water-worn boulders 

 which in time of flood are hurled against each other with such force 

 as to produce a deep rumbling noise heard from afar, in the same 

 manner as in many of the Pyrenean " gaves." This action would 

 easily suffice to grind facets into a small, already rounded pebble 

 falling between revolving masses of considerable size. But it is, 

 indeed, seldom in such a situation that these rounded stones are 

 found. They are met with in the Drakenstein, Paarl, Stellenbosch, 

 and neighbouring valleys, and invariably with bouchers of large size, 

 on the hills or talus slopes, often at great heights. It is probable 

 that if no more have been recorded outside the region of Table 

 Mountain Sandstone, and of the Yaal Eiver deposits, it is because 

 they were considered to be natural products, not artefacts. While 

 some of them are fairly well preserved and patinated (Figs. 81, 82, 

 83, PL XL), others are partially disintegrated, and this, curiously 

 enough, round the facets. 



Fig. 80 is peculiarly instructive in that respect. At the two 

 extremities are two facets not quite concordant, and of the size 

 of a shilling and a sixpenny-piece- respectively; both retain the 

 glaze or patina of the original surface, while the rest of the 

 periphery" is disintegrated to the depth of from 2 to 3 mm. This 

 example I found at Simondium at a height of 300 feet above the 

 level of the river draining the valley, which is some 3 miles away as 

 the crow flies. It was lying among huge bouchers, all showing 

 more disintegration than anj' I have as yet met with." This partial 



* At the time of my visit these implements had just been dug out in making 

 a plantation. The constituents of the soil in which they were embedded, entirely 

 void of lime and containing very little potash, could not have acted as potent 



