NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 
from Walfisch Bay on the west to Algoa Bay on the 
east. They do not land on the mainland, except 
when driven ashore by a violent gale. After severe 
storms young seals of various ages, up to a year, 
have been captured on the Algoa Bay beach, alive 
and in an exhausted condition. On one occasion 
two adults took refuge in the mouth of the Zwart- 
kops River. 
At intervals along the coasts of South Africa 
there are vast accumulations of the remains of shells 
known as Kitchen Middens. In the distant past 
a race of pygmy yellow men dwelt in the rock 
shelters and caves and used roughly chipped stones 
for tools and weapons; and in more recent times 
a tribe very similar in appearance and closely 
related to these yellow pygmies, but of greater 
stature, and known as Hottentots, inhabited the 
coasts. These wild yellow men scoured the beaches 
and gathered shellfish for food. The remains 
were thrown down on or near the beach, and in 
course of time great masses accumulated. In these 
Kitchen Middens the bones of Sea Lions are fre- 
quently found, indicating that these animals fre- 
quented the beaches in the past, for the occasional 
drifting ashore of one of them would not account 
for the quantities of bones I have found from 
time to time in these Kitchen Middens. Near the 
mouth of the Zwartkops River, at Algoa Bay, I 
discovered a large accumulation of the bones of 
seals in a Kitchen Midden, which indicated that a 
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