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CHAPTEE VI. 

 An Account of the "Stations." 



In order that my conclusions regarding the South African Palaeo- 

 lithic Age should be tested eventually, I am giving here an account 

 of the main deposits. 



This account will, of course, contain repetitions of some of the 

 points dealt with in the previous chapters, but it is to be regarded 

 as the documentary evidence on which my explanation of the 

 Palaeolithic and Neolithic Ages in South Africa is based. 



The Deposits of Paarl, Simondium, Stellenbosch, etc. 



The first find in the neighbourhood of Cape Town of very large- 

 sized quartzite palaeoliths was made on the Koeberg Eoad by the 

 Honourable W. F. Lyttelton in 1880. The implement found is of 

 the rare ovoid-discoidal shape, and is represented in PL III., Pig. 24. 



The second was met with in the streets of Paarl, Cape Colony, 

 which are coated with what is here called "gravel," and thought at 

 the time to be laterite, but now considered as a coarse ironstone. On 

 visiting the quarry whence the gravel was exti-acted, I found several 

 palaeoliths of very large size. In the centre of the ironstone deposit 

 was a huge block of the same material, too compact to be easily 

 broken, and from one of the median faces projected a large palaeolithic 

 boucher, which I could not detach without fracture. Some 400 or 

 500 yards away on the higher slope of the hill, and about 1^ 

 or 2 miles from the Breede Eiver, a piece of ground had been 

 "delved" for establishing a new vineyard. Alongside were two 

 heaps of palaeoliths and nuclei, thrown aside by the workmen. 

 From one of these I selected the implement, Fig. 22 of PI. III., and 

 others. Not a single scraper or small spall was to be had. These 

 palaeoliths and nuclei were found at a depth of 2^ or 3 feet — the 

 depth of the "delving." 



I could not continue my investigations at a higher level, as no 

 new ground was put under cultivation that could reveal the extent 

 of the lithic deposit. 



