xvi Transactions of the South African Philosophical Society. 



Dr. J. C. Beattie showed specimens of common glass coloured by 

 sunshine. 



Mr. L. Peeinguey read a note " On Eock Etchings of Animals, 

 &c," the work of South African aborigines, and their relation to 

 similar ones found in Northern Africa. He exhibited specimens of 

 the etchings, and several photographs and impressions. These 

 etchings are not uncommon along the Orange Eiver, also the Vaal 

 Eiver, in the Asbestos Mountains, and other parts of the Colony, 

 Beaufort West, Clanwilliam, Humansdorp, &c, also in the Trans- 

 vaal, and he proceeded to compare these with etchings of a similar 

 nature discovered and reproduced by the Geological Survey of 

 Algeria. There the workmanship is of two kinds. The first kind 

 is of very great antiquity, because among the representations are 

 those, among others, of an extinct Buffalo of gigantic size, the 

 nearest living ally of which is the Ami, or Indian Buffalo. This 

 animal, known under the name of Bubalus antiquus, is probably 

 identical with the one found in South Africa, and both may be the 

 same as Bubalus pdlc&indicus, of Falconer. Anyway, both are 

 species found in the Pleistocene. As it is impossible to admit 

 that an artist might have by pure chance depicted an animal 

 which no longer existed at the time he figured it, we have to 

 conclude that these artists were contemporaneous with the animal. 

 The South African " rupestres " consist of picking instead of line 

 drawings, and are thus somewhat similar to the second category of 

 North African etchings, which represent non-extinct animals, and 

 are thought to have been the work of a Lybico-Berber race. Barth, 

 in his travels in the Soudan, recorded as far back as 1857 etchings 

 on rocks, and they remind one of the mythical scenes of Bushman- 

 paintings. Stowe divides the Bushmen into two groups, the 

 sculptors and the painters, but it is quite possible that both the arts 

 were known or practised at the same time and by the same people. 

 The paintings would have decayed, the etchings remained well-nigh 

 imperishable. We have no evidence of rock etchings being made of 

 late times, but we have evidences of rock paintings having been 

 made quite lately. The patina of some of these rock etchings could 

 have been obtained through untold years only. Thus the race was 

 very ancient indeed. It must be remembered also in connection 

 with the etchings that we have evidence all over South Africa of a 

 palaeolithic age which cannot be attributed to the Bushmen, and 

 which finds its exact counterpart in North Africa and also in the 

 Congo region. 



Dr. E. Marloth read a paper, " Observations on the Functions of 

 the Ethereal Oils of Xerophytic Plants." Since the observations 



