42 Annals of the South African Museu^n. 



disintegration is not restricted to that one rounded stone, for we 

 have in the collection others showing more or less evidence of a 

 great age. 



In some of the best preserved the shape of the facets would seem 

 to imply that these stones have been used as small grinders or 

 muUers (Tigs. 82, 83), only that the facets are slightly concave, 

 or deeper in the centre than at the edges, and differ in this respect 

 from the neolithic mullers figured in PI. XXIII. 



There is no reason for disbelieving that the primitive people who 

 made the palaeoliths availed themselves of these objects primarily 

 fashioned partially, if not completely, by natural agencies with a 

 view either to improve on them {cf. Fig. 23, PI. III.), or of making 

 use of them as they were. The missile hypothesis seems to be 

 strengthened by a recent find in one of the numerous Stellenbosch- 

 valley deposits of an almost orbicular quartzite stone of moderate size, 

 with a very small depression on one side either artificial or more pro- 

 bably left from the original contour, and of another larger spherical 

 one made from milky-vein quartz bearing unmistakable traces of 

 artificial working. I discovered similar ones several years ago, but 

 I rejected them at the time as being doubtful artefacts.''' 



These rounded or polygonal stones are not restricted, as I have 

 already stated, to the Cape, Stellenbosch, and Drakenstein deposits. 



In those of the Vaal River, rounded stones of a similar facies but 

 not facetted are found. They are often difficult to distinguish from 

 naturally rounded ones. A small specimen in our Collection, from 

 Waldeck's Plant on the Vaal River diggings, bears, however, marks 

 of usage in the shape of a small artificial dent, or rather depression. 



At Vereeniging (Transvaal) these implements are of the same type 

 as those from Stellenbosch or Drakenstein, and are made of quartzite 

 or dolerite. In some, the facets correspond more or less on each 

 side; the edges of the depressions or facets are usually sharp, while 

 in other examples they are smoothed and partly obliterated.! 



But to whatever use these rounded stones may have been put, 



factors in the disintegration of sandstone implements all plainly made from 

 rounded water-worn boulders, selected because their texture was denser or more 

 compact. This lack of potentiality in the chemical agents of the soil leads to the 

 conclusion that this partial disintegration is due to an extremely ancient age. 



* I found no less than five such rounded stones in a clay-pit of great depth, 

 and only half a mile from the spot where the two examples here mentioned 

 were dug out. 



f I am greatly indebted to Mr. T. N. Leslie, of Vereeniging, who discovered that 

 deposit, for loaning me the typical specimens for identification, comparison, and 

 reproduction. Mr. J. P.Johnson subsequently described and figured some of these 

 implements (Trans. S. Afric. Phil. 8oc., xvi., pt. 2, 1905). 



