622 BEPORT— 1880. 



FEIDAY, AUGUST 27. 



The following Papers were read : — 



1. On the Stone Age in South Africa. By W. D. GOOCH, C.E. 

 The author discussed the suhject from the following aspects : — 



1. Types of Implements. 



2. Distribution of Implements. 



3. Character of Deposits in which they occur. 



4. Character of material from which they are fashioned. 

 The ethnological facts suggested were 



First, the presence of a primeval low stage of existence, correlating the usual 

 earliest evidences of man upon earth, as found in other countries. 



Its indications are found iu the quaternary strata of Natal, and prohably, on 

 more complete examinations of South Africa, will be imiversally seen in deposits 

 of similar age. 



There seems reason to beheve that the earliest beds in which anthropological 

 traces occur are 'glacial.' 



The materials used in the earlier strata are Grit and sandstone of a metamor- 

 phic character, with doubtful examples of indurated shale ; these being gradually 

 replaced in the latter strata by harder Trachyte, metamorphic rocks, and even 

 Chalcedony. The working of the materials is rude, displaying a vei-y limited power 

 of fashioning either a constant shape or type, striving rather after a keen edge or 

 point, as the ' simimum bonum ' to be acliieved. 



Rough clubs or celts of sandstone, with rude and irregular-shaped assegai 

 weapons for thrusting or throwing, appear to have been the methods of offence at 

 command. 



For sewing skins together, thorns of plants and sinews of animals were ready 

 to hand. 



Pottery, which seems doubtfully present, is unburnt and unornamented. 



This represents a 'Palaeolithic Era' in South Africa. 



Second. To the proceeding by intra-development, or grafted on it by a wave 

 of development from the North, succeeded a period which is represented by the 

 contents of the upland strata of Natal and the eastern province of the ' Old Colony.' 

 This indicates a state in which the use of the hoio was well known, and the 

 javelin forms of the Celts were well-developed and formed by ^ chipping ^ of a 

 coarse character. 



The coarse and less effective materials, sandstone and grit, had been discarded, 

 and the harder sorts of quartz, trachyte, metamorphic and chalcedonic rocks were 

 used to provide flakes. These Flakes were keen, symmetrically fashioned, and of 

 a general uniformity in shape and character, but untrimmed. Pottery had become 

 well known, but its ornamentation and good burning had not yet been arrived at. 



Most of the alluvial deposits of the uplands and the ^olian of the coasts yield 

 relics of this period. 



Third. Almost allied to the last-named, and found insensibly rising from it, 

 especially in the ^olian strata of the coast-lands of Natal, is a period in which 

 polished stone, and ornamented pottery, with wrought weapons in chalcedony of a 

 ' trimmed ' character, are found associated with rougher implements in siliceous 

 and other rocks. The arrow-heads are of a shape which suggests not only know- 

 ledge and use of the bow, but oi poison. War clubs, consisting of perforated stones 

 well-wrought and polished, belong to this age, and form a connecting link between 

 this period, locally developed iu Natal, and the next one. 



The fourth period has a similar aspect to the third, except m its pottery. The 

 materials used are of a highly siliceous character ; the forms of all the weapons, 

 whether picks, scrapers, or arrow-heads, are usually improved by chipping and 

 trimming the original flake at the edges. The variety of types of form is very 

 much increased, and many uses not clearly suggested by the weapons themselves 



