80 Annah of the Soutli African Museum. 



Hill cave-deposits, there is included part of the skull of a large 

 unknown bird. 



Geological, Evidence. 



So far Geology has not been of much use here in helping to 

 elucidate the problem of the antiquity of our Stone Implements. 



But Mr. A. W. Eogers has recorded a find which is of the utmost 

 importance. It is embodied in the Tenth Annual Eeport of the 

 Geological Commission of the Cape of Good Hope, p. 293. 



In 1905 Mr. George Robertson, of "Klein Brak " River, near 

 Mossel Bay, sent to the South African Museum some shells that 

 came from a quarry on his property. Mr. Rogers had occasion to 

 visit the spot and of obtaining a representative collection of the 

 fossils preserved there. 



"A low ridge or terrace, rising to a height of about 15 feet above 

 the level of the Klein Brak River vlei, marks the position of the 

 shelly beds, and small quarries have been opened in the ridge for 

 the purpose of getting out limestone for building. The limestone is 

 a loose-textured, rather incoherent rock, but it hardens rapidly on 

 exposure and appears to stand the weather well. It contains a 

 number of shells which can easily be removed from the rock." 



The species obtained are enumerated. "All these species, with 

 the exception of the Gerithiuvi and Calliostoiaa, are known from the 

 South African seas, though some of them {Panopcea natalensis and 

 Triton australis) do not appear to have been recorded from the coasts 

 of the Cape Colony. 



"In the limestone I found a piece of quartzite ivhich cqjpears to 

 have been shaped by man. It has a form common to many rude 

 implements of small size found on the surface in various parts of 

 the Colony. Mr. Robertson told me he had found round stones 

 flattened at one end, evidently by use as crushers or pounders, in the 

 limestone. . . . The limestone must have been formed at a time when 

 the land stood at least 15 feet lower than now, and when the shore 

 of Mossel Bay passed some two miles inland of its present position." 



The quartzite implement mentioned by Mr. Rogers is in our 

 Collection. It is a fragment of a knife-scraper flake, in shape and 

 composition corresponding with examples found on the sui'face in 

 the Mossel Bay district, especially at Cape St. Blaize. 



That this primitive implement was deposited there in times far 

 remote admits of no doubt whatever. The pity is that it should 

 prove to be an instrument that can give no clue, although from its 

 mere appearance, and without knowing its history, I would have 



