Minutes of Proceedings. 
xi 
the first place to the extremely low grade reached by strearas behind bars 
of hard rock, then to the unfavourable conditions for plant-growth owing 
to the increasing brakness of the soil, which is due to the lack of sufficient 
surface drainage, and the scope thus given to the wind to remove dust and 
sand from the bare ground. 
"A Further Note on the Diurnal Variation of Level at Kimberley," by 
Dr. J. E. Sutton. The suggestion is made that the diurnal oscillation of 
level may be of photo-electric origin. Experiments made to test the idea 
are so far not very definite. Meteorological results at Kimberley are not 
in disagreement with some kind of photo-electric theory. The extreme 
range of the pendulum from west to east is greatest on clear days, and 
least on very cloudy days. Also the range of earth temperature is greater 
or less according as the sky is clear or cloudy. When the barometer is 
lowest during the passage of a barometric depression the diurnal range of 
the pendulum diminishes to a minimum, and rises to a maximum as the 
depression passes away. The clouds which form in the depression are 
responsible for a large part of the variation of level indicated by the range 
of the pendulum. 
Dr. L. Peringuey gave an account of recent finds made in rock- 
shelters once occupied by Strand Loopers (a branch of the Hottentot 
race) and exhibited the relics obtained. These imply a simple culture, 
remains of which were little or not known hitherto. But that culture 
was not limited to these troglodytes. Nor were these aborigines cantoned 
only in caves. A comparison of the scenes painted on stone implements, 
such as a quern, and on flat slabs found under a considerable depth of 
kitchen refuse, showed certain peculiarities to be met with only in paint- 
ings occurring in localities far removed from these cave-shelters. The 
figure of a giraffe in an open-air painted scene, not far removed from the 
shelters, as well as two teeth of crocodile, clearly pointed to wanderings in 
the interior of the Colony on the part of the dwellers. The giraffe could 
not have existed in that part of the country, and was represented there- 
fore from memory ; and the crocodile was certainly no longer a denizen 
of these parts. Either the climatic circumstances had greatly changed — 
and this would postulate a great antiquity for the cave-dwellers — -or, what 
is more likely, these cave-dwellers were great rovers. The author laid 
great stress on the help which careful examination and comparison of the 
Bush paintings afford. Having gone into details as to the mode of 
sepulture and the position which the body was made to assume, he 
exhibited a fragment of stone with bush paintings found in one of the 
caves, representing four natives in almost the same position as that in 
which the skeletons were found. Moreover, over these skeletons had been 
placed two or three flat stones, some of which bore traces of fire. This 
mode of sepulture had not been authenticated hereto. 
