1 84 



NATURE 



[April 24, 1913 



which provides that, after January i, 1913, every 

 fireman, examiner, or deputy employed as a fire- 

 man, with certain exceptions which need not be 

 here specified, must possess a full certificate 

 stating (1) that he can test for gas with a safety- 

 lamp and is able to see a 2 per cent. " cap," (2) that 

 he can measure an air-current, (3) that his hearing 

 is good. 



As a knowledge of the first two requirements 

 cannot be attained by men of this position with- 

 out tuition, numerous classes have been formed 

 in all the colliery districts for the purpose of 

 instructing them. 



Prof. Burns's book is intended to serve as a 

 text-book for these classes, and is, with certain 

 reservations, admirably adapted to its purpose. 

 In attempting to make it suitable to the require- 

 ments of both teachers and pupils, however, its 

 author has produced a work which is in some parts 

 too elementary for the former, and in others 

 (indicated by means of asterisks) too abstruse for 

 the latter. 



The number of teachers and assistants em- 

 ployed by the education committee of the 

 Glamorgan County Council and the number of 

 candidates who have presented themselves for 

 examination before the same authority during the 

 last eight months are, respectively, eighty-seven and 

 more than Sooo. The candidates are thus likely to 

 constitute In' far the more numerous class of his 

 readers, and we feel certain that they would much 

 better appreciate the book if those parts of it 

 intended for teachers, together with most of the 

 chemical and other formulae, descriptions of 

 methods of preparing methane and other gases, 

 and all the more complicated exercises, were 

 omitted. We therefore recommend Prof. Burns, 

 when preparing another edition, to avoid the 

 solecisms which abound in the present book, to 

 eliminate all but the simple matter suitable to the 

 capacity of firemen — which we have no hesitation 

 in pronouncing to be excellent in its present form — 

 and, if he thinks it desirable or necessary, to 

 write another more advanced book for the use of 

 teachers and others. 



SOUTH AFRICAN ARCHAEOLOGY. 

 The Pre-historic Period in Soutli Africa. By 

 J. P. Johnson. Second edition, revised and 

 enlarged. Pp. iv + 1 15 + plates + map. (Lon- 

 don: Longmans, Green and Co., 1912.) 

 Price 105. 



IT is satisfactory to find that there is a suffi- 

 cient interest in the subject of South African 

 archaeology to require a second edition of Mr. 

 NO. 226g, VOL. 91] 



J. P. Johnson's book on "The Pre-historic Period 

 in South Africa " within two years. In the new 

 edition some new finds are referred to, and there 

 is an appendix by Mr. A. S. Kennard on the 

 sequence of the stone implements in the Lower 

 Thames Valley. Mr. Johnson describes and 

 figures chipped stones from Leijfontein, below the 

 Campbell Rand, which closely resemble those 

 from the plateau of Kent, and he does not hesitate 

 to call them "eoliths." Implements of river- 

 drift types are distributed all over South Africa. 

 "Among the amygdaliths [his term for the 

 common type of implement] every gradation is 

 met with between the thick Chelleen form with 

 unworked butt, the thinner Acheuleen type with 

 edge carried all round, and the proto-Solutreen 

 form pointed at both ends " ; he calls them all 

 "Acheulic." He also recognises " Solutric " im- 

 plements; amongst these are "pigmy implements " 

 of chert. Dr. Peringuey found implements at 

 Bloemsbosch in what Johnson considers a Solu- 

 tric site, apparently contemporary with a large 

 extinct buffalo and horse. In the present state 

 of our knowledge it is rather begging the question 

 to apply without qualification to South African 

 finds the terms used to designate special "indus- 

 tries " of European archaeology. It would be a 

 wiser plan to use non-committal designations 

 while pointing out the similarities in the forms 

 of the implements. 



The Coast middens described by Dr. Peringuey 

 are referred to, and several excellent reproduc- 

 tions are given of petroglyphs and rock- 

 paintings, the peckings made by the Bantu being 

 markedly inferior to Bushman work. The upper 

 drawing of his Fig. 37 is of a rock-painting de- 

 scribed by G. W. Stow in "The Native Races 

 of South Africa " (p. 121). Mr. Johnson has no 

 doubt that the " Solutric " implements were made 

 by the ancestors of the present Bushmen, who, 

 he believes, were very far from being a homo- 

 geneous people. Prof. Sollas, in "Ancient 

 Hunters and their Modern Representatives," 

 regards it as highly probable that in Aurignacian 

 times a race allied to the Bushmen inhabited 

 western Europe (p. 268). Mr. Johnson, however, 

 seems to class the Aurignacian, Solutrian, and 

 Magdalenian stages under the term Solutric. 

 Support is given to the i'iew that the famous forts 

 or kraals and other ruined structures in Rhodesia 

 were built by prehistoric Bantu in connection 

 mainly with gold-mining, and he supplies plans 

 of four stone-walled ruined kraals at Ramoo 

 Kop for comparison with those already 

 published. 



