Minutes of 'Proceedings, ix 



Oedinary Monthly Meeting. 

 October 28, 1905. 

 Dr. J. C. Beattie, President, in the Chair. 



The following nominations were made : Mr. H. Kynaston, Trans- 

 vaal Geological Survey, by A. W. Eogees and L. Peringuey ; 

 Professor E. B. Young, by A. Young and L. Peringuey. 



Messrs. A. L. Hall and T. Loveday were elected Ordinary 

 Members of the Society. 



Mr. L. Peringuey exhibited some stone implements and read the 

 following note : — 



While boring for water in the Darling District, Mr. H. M. Oakley 

 discovered in a sand drift blown away by the wind, what appeared 

 to him to be fossilified bones of mammals. Mr. Martin Versfeld, 

 the owner of the farm, informed him that while busy planting some 

 grass to fix the sand he had unearthed what he thought was the 

 skull of a very large ox. This remnant Mr. Oakley at once recog- 

 nised as being similar to the one exhibited in the South African 

 Museum, and described by Seeley under the name of Bubalus baini. 

 Not only did Mr. Oakley communicate at once this discovery to the 

 Museum authorities, but he also was instrumental in having this 

 most interesting relic of the Tertiary times presented to the Institu- 

 tion by its owner, Mr. Martin Versfeld, of Slangkop. 



Encouraged by his find, Mr. Oakley pursued further investigations 

 and discovered in the immediate vicinity of where the first remains 

 were found a considerable quantity of other mammalian relics, 

 among which may be noted the upper jaw of a probably new horse, 

 a variety, if not a new species, of Ehinoceros, &c. These remains 

 are being investigated by our colleague, Dr. E. Broom, and the 

 geological foundation will be examined by Mr. A. W. Eogers, the 

 head of the Geological Survey, as soon as he returns from up-country, 

 at or about Christmas. 



Interesting as Mr. Oakley's discovery is from a geological as well 

 as a palseontological point of view, it is not less so from the anti- 

 quarian. Mr. Oakley found to his very great surprise that not only 

 were some of the bones heaped up here and there, but also that they 

 had been split for getting at the marrow, or pounded at one end 

 when too large for being easily cleft, and he rightly came to the 

 conclusion that this was evidence of man's agency. Availing myself 

 of his guidance, I went to inspect the spot in company with Mr. 



