President's Address CxVil 
information placed in the hands of Dr. Muir, who had first moved in 
this matter. 
There are still hundreds of paintings in a good state of preservation 
in many parts of South Africa, and all we possess of them is Mrs. 
Bleek’s collection of copies, a few odd reproductions in other books, 
and a number of photographs taken at some easily-accessible spots. 
It would be a work of the highest value and interest to secure copies 
or photographs of all the remarkable paintings still in existence, and I 
should not be surprised to learn that a careful study of these produc- 
tions of primitive art would reveal to us some signs of the development 
of the race. 
And this work has been done, but the author is unable to publish it 
on account of the considerable cost. 
What an opportunity for a man of means to secure the everlasting 
gratitude of all students of ethnology, and all lovers of this country, by 
offering a few hundred pounds towards this object! Andif no private 
party should be willing to come forward, the country, through its 
Government, should undertake the work. 
Were the Bushmen in reality the first race which occupied this 
country ? There are no remains known of a race which preceded the 
Bushmen, and yet some travellers think that it must have existed, a 
possibility which I am not prepared to dispute. There are some stone 
implements generally ascribed to Bushmen, which one can hardly imagine 
to have been manufactured by dwarf and comparatively weak people. 
I possess some so-called spear-heads or battle-axes, which I unearthed 
in a fountain near Griquatown, under an alluvial deposit of ten feet of 
soil and lime. They are perfect specimens, with sharp points and 
edges, and weigh two or three pounds respectively. Can this have 
been a Bushman weapon? From such evidence, some observers con- 
clude that once there must have been a more powerful race in South 
Africa, powerful enough to require and use such heavy instruments. 
It is highly probable that a systematic excavation of similar localities 
would throw some light on the state of the successive generations and 
races which occupied the country. At present we ascribe everything 
of the kind simply to Bushmen, but there must have been some 
development in that race, and the stages of this development are 
probably recorded in the soil. 
In going through the minutes of the proceedings of our Society, I 
find two subjects regularly brought forward from time to time, viz., 
the great desirability of a geological survey of the country and the 
study of the Bushmen problem. In 1878 an attempt was made to 
form an ethnological section of the Society, which, while paying atten- 
tion to ethnology in general, was intended to devote itself especially to 
