conviction. After liiiu followed others ; and stone implements 

 were discovered in several parts of the world. 



The age in which stone implements were used by 

 man is that known as the stone age, and is divided 

 roughly into two periods, though in some parts of 

 the world, the distinction between the two is ver}- 

 uncertain, the one merging imperceptibly into the other. The 

 two periods are : (1) Palaeolithic or age of the Drift, '* when man 

 shared the posssssion of Europe with the Mammoth, the cave- 

 bear and other extinct mammals." (2.) The later or polished 

 stone age ; a period characterised by beautiful weapons and 

 instruments made of flint and other kinds of stone ; in which, 

 however, we find no trace of the knowledge of any metal, 

 excepting gold, which seems to have been sometimes used for 

 ornaments. This is called the neolithic period. It is with the 

 former of these two periods, and with what we believe 

 corresponds with this period in South Africa, that I purpose 

 chiefly to deal in this paper. To this period it is that M. 

 de Perthes's implements from the valley of the Somme belong. 

 As the river drift or alluvium of the Somme valley is peculiarly 

 rich in implements of an anticpie type, and as in its general 

 appearance and structure it closely resambles numbers of other 

 river valleys in England and France, a brief description of it 

 and its implements culled from the pages of Lyell and Lubbock 

 will perhaps enable us the better to appreciate the sort of 

 evidence adduced on this subject. The prevailing forms of these 

 implements are : Firstly, those of spearheaded form, from six 

 to eight inches in length. Secondly, those of oval-form, not 

 unlike some stone implements used to this day as hatchets and 

 tomahawks by the Australian natives, but with this difference, 

 that the edge in the Australian weapons, as in the case 

 of those so called " celts " in Europe, has been produced by 

 friction, whereas the cutting edge in the old tools of the valley 



