,406 THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF THE VICTORIA FALLS. [Aug. I909, 



Mr. H. Balfour said that he approached the subject of the 

 Zambesi stone implements chiefly from an archaeological stand- 

 point. He recognized the following points, which seemed to him 

 to indicate clearly the high antiquity of, at any rate, a consider- 

 able number of them: — (1) Their constant association "with what 

 appeared to be ancient drift-deposits, and their relative great scarcity 

 away from surface or bedded drifts ; (2) the heavy patination so 

 frequently seen upon the implements of chalcedony, etc. ; (3) the 

 evidence of long-continued abrasion, which seemed to show that 

 they had in many instances been rolled along the bottom of the 

 river for a considerable distance and during a prolonged period ; 

 (4) the fact that the forms of the larger implements more especially 

 corresponded exactly with the characteristic 'river-drift' Palaeolithic 

 implements of Western Europe, and the absence of implements 

 which must be regarded as of later type ; (5) the absence of corre- 

 spondence between these implements and the known forms of stone 

 tools used by the recent native inhabitants of South Africa ; and (6) 

 their gisement, and particularly the fact that not only did the 

 implements usually appear to belong to the gravel-deposits, of 

 which they formed an integral part, but that he (the speaker) had 

 excavated a number of them from the lower layers of undisturbed 

 stratified gravel-beds, which were, as he believed, terrace-gravels of 

 the Zambesi deposited by the river at a very remote period. He 

 recognized that a certain number of the implements that were to 

 be found in the district might be of quite recent date, but these did 

 not affect the question of the antiquity of the remainder. 



Col. H. W. Feildekt remarked that, as far back as 1905, he had 

 published his views on the river-gravels of the Zambesi Valley, 

 above and below the Victoria Falls. In that paper he had ventured 

 to advance the opinion that the high-level gravels, bordering the 

 ancient river-course below the Palls, had been deposited by the 

 Zambesi, when that river ran at the same level as it now does 

 above the Falls, and that many of the stone implements associated 

 with these high-level gravels were deposited at the same time. He 

 still adhered to those views. He did not think that the Author had 

 brought forward sufficient evidence to controvert his views, and the 

 Author's statement that they were baseless appeared to him some- 

 what premature. 



The President (Prof. Sollas) remarked that there could be no 

 doubt as to the forms of the implements, which were not only Palaeo- 

 lithic, but Lower Palaeolithic ; on this point all observers were in 

 agreement. They were also contemporaneous with the high Zambesi 

 gravels, as was shown by the diggings of Mr. Henry Balfour and the 

 observations of Col. Feilden ; but this fact by itself was insufficient 

 to determine their relative age. There was room for a difference of 

 opinion as regarded the powers of the Bushmen : they were distin- 

 guished for their courage and mental activity, and the possession of the 

 bow and poisoned arrows would have given them a great advantage 

 over a Lower Palaeolithic race. But that, as a matter of fact, they 



