The Stone Ages of South Africa. 157 



" No. 3 contained four drawings of animals ; the largest animal 

 appears to represent a wilclebeeste, two smaller animals drawn facing 

 one another appear to be steinboks, and the fourth a bluebuck. 



"Unfortunately the drawings on stone No. 3 have disappeared, 

 as it was left exposed to the weather. 



" On the walls of the cave, which are discoloured by smoke, no 

 drawings have hitherto been discovered. In the course of excava- 

 tion different coloured bits of clay were found. The drawings 

 on the flat stones are made with charcoal. 



" As already intimated, the debris in the cave was systematically 

 removed in layers, bagged and used as manure, on lands in the 

 neighbourhood. The straight perpendicular wall of the northern 

 face of the section shows clearly the method in which the debris 

 accumulated. 



" The latter consists principally of various species of shells, ash, 

 and fragments of bone, both of animals and fish. Interspersed 

 here and there are chips of stone, water-worn stones, and household 

 tools consisting of stone plates," stone hammers, scrapers, bone 

 needles, &c. 



" This debris appears to have accumulated entirely by human 

 agency, that is to say, it is the waste products of articles of food, 

 such as shells and bones of animals and fish used, the ash from 

 fires, &c. The fires appear generally to have been made some 

 distance from the walls of the cave — say 10 to 15 feet — because 

 little or no ash is found near the walls or the looser texture of the 

 debris. It is interesting to note that no attempt appears to have 

 been made by the inhabitants of the cave to remove any waste 

 material. There are, however, indications — though further inves- 

 tigation is required — that fires were made above the graves. There 

 are no indications that the graves were of any depth ; on the con- 

 trary, from the number of skeletons found at varying depths it 

 would appear that only shallow excavations were made sufficient 

 to admit a corpse and to permit of the flat stones being placed a few 

 inches below or flush with the then floor of the cave. 



" In order to verify the statement made by Mr. Witcher, I carefully 

 examined the section of the cave exposed by the excavations up to 

 the 14th of July, 1909 — the date of my visit. I found an excava- 

 tion about 9 yards square and a depth of 9 feet. In my presence a 

 further layer was removed and a skeleton discovered. It had above 

 it three flat stones. It was lying on its right side with knees 

 drawn up to the chin. The arms were also bent. The skull was 

 * We shall see later on that these are painting palettes. 



