THE ENGRAVED ROCK OF KOPONG AND LOE, 

 BECHUANALAND PROTECTORATE. 



By M. WiLMAN, 

 McGregor Memorial Museum^ Kimherlcy. 



With Plates XL-XLIII. 



Read July g, 1919. 



In a paper read at the last meeting of this Association* it 

 was stated that another " Creation site " had lately been reported 

 to Mr. J. D. Knobel, of Molepolole, and that he was making- 

 enquiries about it. 



These having proved fairly promising, he very kindly 

 invited Mr. A. M. Cronin and the writer to accompany him. last 

 May, to a place called Kopong.t in the hope of being able to 

 locate and photograph the spoors said to exist there. 



Kopong is situated on the north of the Mokwena stad of 

 Molepolole, some ten miles from it, but only about two miles 

 from the Makgalegadi village of Mutle. 



The latter is easily reached from the stad by ox-waggon 

 along what is little better than a track through grass veld and 

 rather thin bush. 



Beyond Mutle, however, this becomes less thin, and the 

 last part of the way, indeed, can only be made on foot through 

 fairly dense bush. But suddenly this opens out and an exten- 

 sive outcrop of quartzite is revealed, and here the Kopong may 

 easily be discovered. 



A large portion of the outcrop is well shown in one of 

 the photographs taken by Mr. Cronin (PI. XL). Here the rock 

 is seen sloping down towards the hole, in the foreground. 



Over it in the rainy season large quantities of water must 

 rush down and collect at the base to form a water-hole ; but 

 in May last, after long-continued drought, there was no water 

 there, only much sand, almost closing the hole. 



Some of the rock is very coarse, and none of it is fine- 

 grained, but it has been much weathered, and on the slopes 

 leading to the hole it has in addition been worn down by humans 

 and animals in quest of water to such an extent that it is now 

 quite smooth and slipper}'. 



On the more or less horizontal rock in the distance (PI. 

 XL, XLI) spoors, with a notable exception, could not be found; 



*M Wilman: "The Engraved Rock of Loe, Bechuanaland Protec- 

 torate."' Rep. S.A. Ass. Adv. Sci., 1919, X,V, pp. 531-534- PI- 12-15. 



t Kopong means " a round hole," and is a not uncommon place-name 

 in Bechuanaland. 



