Chap, vi.] KITCHEN MIDDENS. 12/ 



one of the moles gave me a very unpleasant nip, biting through 

 the sack and my clothes. 



When put in a strong wire cage the mole first tried to 

 burrow, but finding that absolutely impossible, tried to bite 

 the wires all round, and that failing, became sullen and quiet. 

 The animal can evidently see for short distances. 



Besides these moles, which are a great pest in gardens, 

 there is a little Insectivorous mole {Chrysochloris inauratiis), 

 the Golden-mole, which is not more than half the size of our 

 English mole, and has a dark silky fur shot with most brilliant 

 metallic golden tints. This mole makes quite superficial runs 

 in the ground, so near the surface that the earth is raised all 

 along the run, and hence the track can be followed everywhere 

 above ground. When one of these is seen at work, it can be 

 thrown out with a stick or spade at once. 



I several times went over the hills to the coast on the other 

 side of the promontory. At White Sands, nearly opposite, are 

 a series of shell mounds, or " kitchen middens," which occur 

 also at Cape Point and many places along the coast. There 

 are huge mounds of large Patelke, Haliotis, and other shells ; 

 the limpets are so large as to make convenient drinking cups. 



All about the mounds are to be found various stone imple- 

 ments used by the people, either Bushmen or Hottentots, who 

 made the mounds (probably Bushmen). There are flat stones, 

 each with a long shallow groove worn on them, and small 

 cylindrical stones lying about which fit the hand, and have 

 evidently been used for rubbing up and down the grooves, and 

 have indeed thus worn them. The use of these grooved stones 

 is uncertain. The usual idea is that various bulbs and roots 

 used by the midden people were ground in them. Perhaps 

 they used them partly for pounding or rubbing tender the hard 

 muscular foot of Haliotis, Patella, and other Gasteropods, to 

 prepare them for eating. 



Haliotis (the large Ear-shell) is now prepared at the Cape 

 for eating by pounding, as also at the Channel Islands. The 

 Haliotis, as cooked at the Cape, is excellent, quite a luxury. 

 No iron is allowed to touch it in preparation ; it must be got 

 out of the shell with horn or wood implements, then pounded 

 with stone or wood and finally stewed. It is considered that 

 if iron touches the animal it becomes rigidly contracted and 

 hopelessly tough. It is quite possible that the popular opinion 

 may be correct, and that contact with iron may produce a 

 rigid tetanus of the muscles. 



Some of the grooved stones have grooves on both sides, one 

 groove having been evidently worn out. Some of the grooves are 

 as much as a foot long and two inches, or a little more, in width. 



