58 Annals of the South African Museum. 



" Micoque " laneiform knife-scrapers, attributed to the Chellean- 

 Acheulean ; of that of No. 4 of the same Fig. to the " Chatelperron " 

 scraper-knives, &c. 



The importance of the Nooitgedacht deposit is that the scraper- 

 knives and bouchers are found together, all bearing clear proofs that 

 they have been subjected at one time to the same process of 

 abrasion, and we are therefore justified in arriving at the conclusion 

 that the two types of implements, the boucher and scraper, were 

 artefacts of the same makers. 



But when we try to assign a geological date not only to these 

 relics, but also to similar ones from the deposits of the Vaal Kiver, 

 we are confronted with the same difficulties as in the case of the 

 other South African deposits. 



In this Nooitgedacht gravel-bed numerous potsherds were found 

 associated with the implements. One piece, now in the Collection, 

 is of moderately close texture; the greatest thickness is 8 mm. ; the 

 edges of the fracture are not abraded in the least, and the outside 

 glaze is wonderfully well preserved. There is nothing to differen- 

 tiate it from the pottery made by " Topnaar " Hottentots {vidgo 

 " Strand Loopers "). 



This pottery must have been deposited accidentally in the gravel- 

 bed before the latter was covered by the layer of sand, but it points 

 also to the implements having been deposited there in their already 

 abraded condition, because the evidence of the unabraded potsherds 

 preclude the possibility of the implements having been water-w^orn 

 in their distinctive manner in that particular cul-de-sac, or 

 " pot-hole." 



They must, therefore, have been brought down with alluvium, 

 rom higher levels, from river-terraces. We shall see what evidence 

 is obtainable on that point ; but one must not forget that specimens 

 found in the gravels of the Vaal Eiver must have been left there in 

 the same w^orn condition as when deposited ; that is to say, worn 

 by gravels in the process of formation. 



A close examination of some of the Nooitgedacht pieces reveals 

 traces still fairly visible of the pitting that long-prolonged eolian 

 agencies impart to diabasic implements. This is very important. 

 It implies that the palaeoliths were already of great antiquity before 

 being subjected to the fluviatile attrition. 



Messrs. J. P. Johnson and R. B. Young, in a paper read before 

 the Geological Society of South Africa,* state that " all along the 



* " The Relation of the Ancient Deposits of the Vaal River to the Palasolithic 

 Period of South Africa " (IX., 1906), p. 53. 



