138 Annals of the South African Museum. 



exposed at all seasons to the blast of that ever-moving sand, it does 

 not seem probable that the shell-gatherers chose the top of this sand- 

 dune to settle there even temporarily. It is true, however, that under 

 the layer of shells, and under the body, there "w&s sand, but we found 

 also there tubular lime-coated roots, or trunks of trees or bushes, of 

 a size plainly indicating that vegetation of a robust kind had in 

 previous years consolidated the original sand-heap.''' 



I have come to the conclusion that this sepulture is very old, 

 because the immense accumulation of sand postulates a great age. 

 The extent of the midden must also have been considerable ; for we 

 found about a mile from the place large potsherds exposed by the 

 wind. 



Middens of the Cape Flats. 



On the Cape Flats, beginning at about 5 miles from Cape Town 

 and reaching almost to False Bay, near Strandfontein, is a succes- 

 sion of longitudinal depressions in which the rain-water accumulates, 

 and which are usually dominated on one side by sand-hills often of 

 considerable magnitude, and as shifty as those occurring in a line 

 more or less parallel to the seashore. When one, or more, of these 

 dunes is removed bodily, although gradually — a thing which happens 

 at times — one finds here and there on the floor heaps of accumulated 

 sea-shells, mostly reduced to minute fragments, and with them a 

 profusion of small pieces of ostrich egg-shell, as well as perforated 

 discs of the same material manufactured into beads. These beads 

 are irregularly rounded outwardly, and most of them are of much 

 smaller size than those met with farther north. The very much 

 reduced periphery, in proportion to the size of the perforation, 

 required consummate skill in the making ; the number of broken, 

 and therefore spoiled, discs bears out the supposition as to the 

 difficulty inherent to the making. Fig. 146 represents these egg- 

 shell beads in all stages of manufacture. At the top of the Fig. 

 are shown the borers, also found in sitil, and on the right three glass 

 beads of European manufacture. 



Some of the implements represented in Fig. 141 were found there, 



* " The sand is calcareous. As it shifts before the wind it in many places buries 

 bushes growing near the shore. These die, and their stems buried in the sand, 

 decay, and in doing so set free a certain amount of acid which brings about a 

 solution and redeposition of calcareous matter in the sand. The sand immediately 

 surrounding the stems is thus cemented into a solid mass which encrusts the 

 remains of the bark. The wood decays away, and a pipe with a wall of cemented 

 calcareous sand is the result" (Moseley, "A Naturalist on the Challenger ; Cape 

 of Good Hope," p. 149). 



