72 A)nials of tlic South African Museum. 



a collection of pebbles, and that the roofs afterwards collapsed. At 

 present there is a detached block of eolian sandstone lying upon 

 3 feet or so of rolled pebbles — also bound fast by the lime — and 

 it is amongst these the implements and bone fragments are found. 



" The coarsely cemented sand shell masses along our beach here 

 are hardly entitled to be called rocks ; they are the cores of old sand- 

 dunes quickljf formed and quickly disintegrated ; and there are other 

 similar spots near at hand where the occurrence I have been sur- 

 mising is likely to be re-enacted at no distant date. 



" I think, too, his deductions from the ' finds ' in Gately's garden 

 are unwarranted. A shell-midden exists there lying upon the shale, 

 the latter comes to about a foot from the surface. x\nything im- 

 perishable left lying about would surely soon sink through that 

 shallow soil. It would be good camping ground for the Strand 

 Loopers because of its outlook, and there was a vlei near at 

 hand upon the site of which, by the way, our Town Hall now 

 stands." 



Negative again in this case is evidence of great antiquity, and 

 I would not have mentioned the East London deposit were it not 

 that the late G. McKay's account of it is on record, and may prove 

 misleading. 



I have before me a large photograph of sixty -three implements 

 collected by him. Some are large flakes that may be palaeolithic, 

 but the presence of numerous " I'Kwes"* whole or broken, perforated 

 entirely or partly, large, and very small, with an accompaniment 

 of mullers of different sizes, and also of "pygmy" flakes, denote 

 but too well the domestic appliances of the shell-mound dwellers. 

 This photograph was evidently intended to be an illustration, as 

 representative as possible, of these stone implements, the deposition 

 of which showing proofs of untold ages in the antiquity of man was 

 such a cherished idea of the investigator, who, like Scow and others, 

 unfortunately did not know how to discriminate between palaeolithic 

 and neolithic types. 



In this photograph there is not one figure approximating a 

 boucher. Large flakes are there, but there are no means of ascer- 

 taining their size. Some look weathered, others not ; but on the 

 whole these flakes are typical of those sent us by Mr. J. Wood. 



I have already sounded a note of warning as to attributing a 

 very ancient or comparatively modern age to our South African 



* A " !'Kwe " is a more or less spherical stone perforated in the centre, the 

 perforation being begun at each end and meeting in the centre (see chapter on 

 I'Kwes, &c.). 



