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ON EOCK-ENGEAVINGS OF ANIMALS AND THE HUMAN 

 FIGUEE, FOUND IN SOUTH AFEICA. 



(Second Note.) 



By L. Peringuey, 



Director of the South African Museum. 



With Plates VII.-XV. 

 (Eead September 29, 1908.) 



I. 



The Eock-Engravings. 



In a preliminary note on this subject, published in Vol. XVL, 

 1906, of the Transactions of the South African Philosophical Society, 

 I alluded to rock-engravings (sculptures rupestres, graffiti, petro- 

 glyphs) of a type far superior in finish and artistic merit to those 

 that were at the time the object of my communication. 



These rock-engravings are indeed so very superior in technique 

 and correctness of outline, that they cannot fail to compel admira- 

 tion, especially when it is remembered how primitive were the tools 

 used by the sculptors, and how exceedingly hard the surface of the 

 rock, which must have caused many a rechipping of the edges or 

 points of the stone tools, themselves of a material not harder than 

 the stones on which the delineations are so deeply engraved. 



These rocks are porphyritic, or consist of amygdaloid diabase ; 

 but some carvings have been found on granite, on sandstone, and 

 also on slate. 



In many of the figures here reproduced " we have no longer lines 

 or outlines obtained by more or less rough pointing or punching as 

 shown in several of the illustrations of my first note. The technique 



* The reproduction of these figures was obtained not by chalking the chipped 

 parts, but by carefully oiling the surface of the rock adjoining the outlines of the 

 figures ; owing to the darkening of the adjoining surface, the figures appear boldly 

 and very distinctly in the photographs. 



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