10 



beds, remains of the mammoth, rhinoceros, and reindeer are 

 found. The age of these implements found in the second or 

 oldest series of gravel, is represented l)y t]w time wliicli it has 

 taken the river to cut out its channel to the depth 

 of one hundred feet added to the time necessary for the 

 formation of the peat, the age of which has already been 

 alluded to. One striking feature in comparing the relative ages 

 of the peat and the older gravels, is that whereas in the very 

 deepest layers of the former not one single specimen of any 

 extinct species has been found, in the latter a number of 

 extinct sj)ecies both of shells and of mammals have been 

 discovered. The above is a condensed and brief sketch of this 

 branch of Archaeology as given by Sir Charles Lyell and Sir 

 John Lubbock. 



In South Africa, as we press nothwards among the 

 primitive Bushmen tribes, we find the stone age in some 

 measure still existing, though even amongst the wildest tribes it 

 is dying a sure but a lingering death. Throughout the wliole 

 of the Cape Colony wherever the observant traveller has set foot, 

 stone implements have been found. Some of them, notably 

 those from the Cape fiats, the more perfect in form and finish, 

 lie in recent deposits round existing vleys, or lightly buried 

 in sand, probably the products of an age in the innnediate past. 

 Others again of more antique and ruder mould are found in 

 deposits, at least in one instance with wliicli we shall shortly 

 deal, as ancient as tliose which they so nnudi resemble, found on 

 the banks of European rivers. Compared with the carefully 

 accumulated mass of evidence collected in Europe, our stock of 

 evidence is necessarilly slight — nevertheless, such as it is, so 

 nearly does it coincide with that more carefully collected 

 eviilence in Europe, that we may fairly offer at least a probable 

 interpretation. That interpretation which we have already 

 somewhat anticipated may be thus broadly stated. What 



