Palceollthic Implements from the Plateau- Gravels. 169 



rock, more or less coated with conic structures, which appear to 

 have been formed out of layers of shale and ironstone The 

 ben ding- up of the shale above the nodules an I down b^low them, 

 the close but unconformable covering of Permian breccia, and the 

 staining of the whole section suggests, if indeed it does n >t 

 demonstrate, to the author that the growth of the conc-in-cone 

 took place subsequently to the deposit of the Permian breccia. 

 Several American and other examples are described, and a series of 

 conclusions are appended to the paper. 



April 6th.— W. Whitaker, B.A., F.R.S., President, 

 in the Chair. 



Prof. T. Rupert Jones exhibited and commented upon a series of 

 large stone-implements, sent to England by Mr. Sidney Ryan, from 

 the tin-bearing gravels of the Embabaan in Swaziland (South Africa). 

 They consist of fine-grained quartzite, chert, lydite, siliceous schist, 

 and quartzites composed of breccia and grit-stones, one of the latter 

 mylonized. Also some corresponding rock-specimens from the 

 neighbouring Ingewenyaberg, with a map and section by Mr. S. 

 Ryan. Some similar implements from the same district, lent by 

 Air. Nicol Brown, E.G.S., and some analogous implements of rough 

 quartzite, from Somalilaud, lent by the Rev. R. A. Bullen, F.G.S., 

 were also exhibited. 



Prof. H. G. Seeley exhibited the humerus of a Plesiosaurian in 

 which the substance of the bone was almost entirely replaced by opal. 

 He explained that the fossil was from the opal-mines of Xew South 

 AVales. Externally there is no indication of its internal condition as 

 a pseudomorph, and it had been broken to ascertain its commercial 

 value as opal. It is translucent ; of a bluish tint, with a slight red 

 fire. So far as he was aware, it was the only example of a fossil 

 bone in this condition ; and he was indebted to Messrs. Hasluck, 

 the opal-mercbanfs, for the opportunity of placing the specimen 

 before the Fellows. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. ' On some Palaeolithic Implements from the Plateau-Gravels, 

 and their Evidence concerning "Eolithic" Man.' By W. Cunnington, 

 Esq., F.G.S. 



Although at first inclined to believe that the chipping on the 

 ' Eoliths ' of the plateau-gravels was the work of man, the author 

 has been led to recant this opinion by the detailed study of specimens 

 lent or given to him by Mr. B. Harrison. His reasons are mainly 

 based on the facts that the chipping is of different dates, even upon 

 the same specimen, and that it was produced after the specimens 

 were embedded in the gravel. 



A further series of specimens, which, although not found actually 

 in situ in the gravels, present undoubted evidence that they came 

 from these, are considered by the author to be of Palaeolithic type. 

 One of them appeared to have gone through the following stages : — 

 first it was fashioned by man into a Palaeolithic implement, then it 

 was abraded, broken and chipped along one edge in the same fashion 



Phil. Mag. S. 5. Vol. 46. No. 278. July 1898. N 



