Bock-engravings of Animals and the Human Figure. 409 



they have a very distinct patination. On one very large boulder, 

 the smooth surface of which bears the reproduction of a rhinoceros, 

 and also of probably a zebra, which are no longer clearly defined, the 

 crust of the under surface on which the boulder rested is of the same 

 thickness as that of the smooth upper surface, although it was cer- 

 tainly more protected in that situation from weathering agencies, 

 and the wearing away of the engraving must have taken a very 

 considerable time. There is also another reason why some of these 

 inscriptions should prove to be very ancient. They are not always 

 found on the Karroo dolerite mentioned above, but also on the 

 glaciated surface of diabase rocks forming at Riverton the bed, and 

 at other places the banks of the Vaal River. They have not been 

 obliterated either by the flow of water or by ordinary weathering. 

 There is no reason to believe that the etchings were originally much 

 deeper than the striated glacial lines, but some of them have become 

 very faint. In the Victoria West District the engravings are hardly 

 distinct from the background. 



Another kind of technique is recorded by Mr. M. J. Jackson, who 

 states * that while on patrol some thirty-five years ago among the 

 kloofs of the Zwartberg, in the Kenhardt District, Cape Colony, 

 he found a fine engraving in relief of an antelope. That is to say, 

 the surroundings of the outline had been chipped away. I have not 

 been able to trace any specimens of this kind. 



Rock-engravings made by line drawings are also found in the Cape 



Colony. My friend, Mr. H. C. Schunke-Hollway, made copies 



in 1873 at Jagdpanfontein in the district of Kenhardt, Cape Colony, 



of a number of these. He is quite sure that the engravings were 



not pointed or punched. In this locality the variety of figures 



depicted is great. Next to faithful reproductions of an ass-like 



animal, possibly a zebra, an eland, a kudu, a multi-striped zebra, 



inferior, however, in delineation to the examples I have mentioned 



or figured, are depicted fanciful representations of a chameleon, 



14 inches long, with its huge tongue protruding, and having a long, 



erect mane, and the tail of a baboon; a monitor (Varanes) has a 



crest over its nose ; a wart-hog (Phacocharus) has a third tusk in 



the shape of a mark of interrogation curving above its head ; an 



eland has a bifid horn shorter than the ears, and is adorned with 



two twisted appendages in the centre of the face, while an antelope, 



which, like the eland, is otherwise fairly delineated, bears instead 



of horns a straight process divaricating at right angles at the 



top, &c. 



* Eeturn showing the Districts and the places within them in which Bushman 

 paintings are known to exist. — Parliamentary Paper, 1906. 



