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 A, P. IlLLIER, M.D.B.A.
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
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 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
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 THE INTK^IHTY OF liklti 
 
 U SOUTH IFEICA, 
 
 AND 
 
 ETOIUTION, 
 
 BY 
 
 A. P. HILLIER, M.D., B.A, 
 
 KniBKKI-KV : 
 C. H HARTI.EV AND SOX. CEXKRAT. PRIXTEKS. 
 
 I 8 <)
 
 G-N 
 S5 V\5S 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 This paper was first written some few years ago and 
 read to the Eastern Province Literary and Scientific Society 
 at Grahamstown. It appeared in the Grahamstown " Journal " 
 at the time ; but is now out of print. Several friends have 
 been good enough to express regret at not being able to 
 obtain a copy, and as the paper contains a record of some 
 researches, however imperfect, made by myself and others 
 in South Africa, I have decided to publish it. I venture to 
 think it will have some intesest for the general reader, and 
 I also hope that some few readers may be found to pursue 
 the study of this subject, for which South Africa presents 
 such a wide and practically unexplored field. The portion 
 of the paper dealing with the bearing of the stone age on 
 evolution I have slightly altered, the rest remains as it 
 originally appeared in the " Tournal." 
 
 Ki ruber ley, 
 
 July, i8go. 
 
 121G82(-
 
 THK A\T1(|I'ITY OF MAX 1\ SOITII VFRK'l 
 AND EVOLITIOX. 
 
 '' While we liave ])een straining' our eyes to the East, and 
 eagerly watching excavations in Egypt and Assyria, suddenly a 
 new light has arisen in the midst of us ; and the oldest relics 
 ol man yet discovered have occurred, not among the ruins of 
 Nineveh or Heliopolis, not on the sandy plains ol" the Nile, or 
 the Euphrates, hut in the pleasant valleys of England and 
 France, along the hanks of the Seine and the Somnie, the 
 Thames and the Waveney." Thus wrote Sir John Luhhock in 
 his " Prehistoric Times " twenty years ago. The " New Light," 
 a very dim and flickering flame at first, was kept hurning for 
 several years almost entirely hy the zeal and determination o^ 
 one man, M. Boucher de Perthes. In 1841, this discoverer, at 
 Menchecourt near Abheville, flrst found a rudely-fashioned flint 
 huried in some sand. The flint, so he surmised, had been 
 intended for a cutting instrument. For some years in the same 
 neighbourhood he continued starching, and found at intervals 
 several other shnilar weapons and several " so called " stone 
 hatchets. At length in 1840 he published his first work on the 
 subject. In this he announced that he had found human 
 implements in l)eds unmistakably belonging to the age of the 
 drift. On the strength of the discovery he contended that man 
 had existed on the earth contemporaneously with many now 
 extinct mammals whose remains are found in the drift, and that 
 the period of man's existence npon the earth must be pushed 
 back far beyond the limits hitherto assigned to it by Anti- 
 quarians. His astonished readers, with that hostile incredulity 
 which in all times has assailed new truths, regarded him as a
 
 6 
 
 rash cntliusiiist if not indeed a madman. For many years he 
 made few converts. At length some of the less sce})tic-al men 
 in the scientific workl hegan to investigate the matter for them, 
 selves. In their wake followed many others, until at length the 
 verdict, an almost unanimous one, was given. The implements, 
 rude thougli they seemed, were recognised as of human origin : 
 no process in nature could account for them. Rough and ill 
 shapen they were, hut nevertheless unmistakahle were the 
 indications of the skill of man. 
 
 The co-existence of the makers of these implements 
 with extinct mammals, and the antiquity of the beds 
 in which the implements were found, still i-emainetl 
 however to some extent open questions. To these (piestions — 
 questions of the very deepest interest to the theological, 
 scientific and thinking world generally — geological experts, 
 notably. Sir Charles Lyell, now turned their attention. In his 
 work on the " Antiquity of Man," Sir Charles Lyell in a clear, 
 comprehensive and impartial style lays before his readers the 
 mass of evidence he has to adduce on this subject. His 
 conclusions, supported as they are by the researches of experts 
 of all nationalities, are to any unbiassed mind convinchig 
 Man's co-existence in Europe with species of large pachyder- 
 matous mammals long since extinct, and at a tin^e when the 
 climate in what are now tem})erate latitudes was as severe as 
 in Northern Ilussia to-day, has gradually come to be regarded 
 as a scientific fact. Man's appearance upon the earth would 
 seem to have occurred, not as was generally supposed a few odd 
 thousand years ago, but at a far more remote period amongst 
 those {L'ons of time, the vastness of which the science of geology 
 has revealed. Prior to the discoveries of M. Boucher de Perthes 
 it is only fair to say that one or two other discoverers had called 
 attention to similar stone imi)lements, l)ut without avail. M. 
 de Perthes was the first to secure public attention and scientific
 
 conviction. After liiiu followed others ; and stone implements 
 were discovered in several parts of the world. 
 
 The age in which stone implements were used by 
 man is that known as the stone age, and is divided 
 roughly into two periods, though in some parts of 
 the world, the distinction between the two is ver}- 
 uncertain, the one merging imperceptibly into the other. The 
 two periods are : (1) Palaeolithic or age of the Drift, '* when man 
 shared the posssssion of Europe with the Mammoth, the cave- 
 bear and other extinct mammals." (2.) The later or polished 
 stone age ; a period characterised by beautiful weapons and 
 instruments made of flint and other kinds of stone ; in which, 
 however, we find no trace of the knowledge of any metal, 
 excepting gold, which seems to have been sometimes used for 
 ornaments. This is called the neolithic period. It is with the 
 former of these two periods, and with what we believe 
 corresponds with this period in South Africa, that I purpose 
 chiefly to deal in this paper. To this period it is that M. 
 de Perthes's implements from the valley of the Somme belong. 
 As the river drift or alluvium of the Somme valley is peculiarly 
 rich in implements of an anticpie type, and as in its general 
 appearance and structure it closely resambles numbers of other 
 river valleys in England and France, a brief description of it 
 and its implements culled from the pages of Lyell and Lubbock 
 will perhaps enable us the better to appreciate the sort of 
 evidence adduced on this subject. The prevailing forms of these 
 implements are : Firstly, those of spearheaded form, from six 
 to eight inches in length. Secondly, those of oval-form, not 
 unlike some stone implements used to this day as hatchets and 
 tomahawks by the Australian natives, but with this difference, 
 that the edge in the Australian weapons, as in the case 
 of those so called " celts " in Europe, has been produced by 
 friction, whereas the cutting edge in the old tools of the valley
 
 8 
 
 ■of the Somme was always gained l)y the simple fracture of the 
 flint, and by the repetition of man}' dexterous blows. Some of 
 these tools were probably used as weapons, both of war and of 
 the chase, others to grub up roots, cut down trees, and scoop out 
 canoes. Between the spear-head and oval shapes there are 
 various intermediate gradations, and there are also a vast 
 variety of very rude implements, many of which may have been 
 rejected as failures, and others struck off as chips in the course 
 of manufacturing the more perfect ones. To describe without 
 the aid of diagrams the structure of the alluvial deposits in the 
 valley of the Somme, in which these implements are found, is 
 not so simple a task as to describe the implements themselves. 
 I will however l)rietly endeavour to make clear the main features. 
 The chalk hills \rhich l)ound the valley are two or three hundred 
 feet in height The masses of drift or alluvium lie in the 
 bottom of the valley, and on the sides of the hills For the 
 sake of proceeding from the known to the less known, Lvell 
 makes his surve}' of these deposits retrospective, and beginning 
 Avith the most recent, proceeds backwards to the more ancient. 
 Of all these geological monuments, the most recent is the peat. 
 This substance occupies tlic l)ottom of the valley from some 
 miles inland to the sea. It is in places thirty feet tliick. All 
 the embedded mannnalia and shells are recent and belong to 
 species now inhahiting Eui-ope. Gallo-Iioman works of art are 
 foun'l in the peat near tlu- surface, and at a greater depth, 
 Celtic weapons. ]3ut the dei)th at which Komiui works of art 
 occur, varies in ditferent places, and is no sure test of age : 
 because in some parts the peat being tluid, heavy substances 
 sink ill it from their own gravity In one <-as(! ]\[. de Perthes 
 found several large flat dishes of rioman pottery, which, 1> in-- 
 in a horizontal position, were prevented from sinkhig through 
 the underlying peat. Allowing about fourteen centuries for the 
 growth of the superineiimbeiit matter, he calculated that thv, 
 thickness jfained in a hundied years would be no more than
 
 9 
 
 three French centimetres. This rate of increase, if one could 
 fairly adopt such a ehrononietric scale, would demand many 
 thousands of years for the formation of thirty feet. " Small as 
 is the progress hitherto made in interpreting the pages of the 
 peaty record, their importance in the valley of the Somme is 
 enhanced hy the reflection that whatever he the number of 
 centuries to which they i-elate, they belong to times i)osterior to 
 the ancient implement bearing beds which we are next to 
 consider, and are even separated from them as we shall see, l>y 
 an interval far greater than that which divides the earliest 
 strata of the peat from the latest."' Immediately underlying 
 the peat in the bottom of the valley and recumbent on the 
 chalk, is a gravel bed, l)elieved to be the most recent of the 
 gravel deposits, formed from the wreck of older gravels to be 
 described presently, and formed during the last hollowing-out 
 and deepening of the valley innnediately before the connnence- 
 ment of the growth of peat. 
 
 We come now to the implement bearing deposits, the older 
 gravels formed on the sides of tlie hills l)ounding the valley at 
 different heights.. The Ih-st series of these is found at levels 
 slightly elevated above the i^resent river The lowest bed of 
 this series in which the implements are found, consists of gravel 
 mixed with marl and sand, and contains fresh water, land, and 
 in some of the lower sands, marine shells, showing that the 
 river at this part was sometimes gained upon by the sea. This 
 bed is about twelve feet in thickness. Overlying this is about 
 fifteen feet of loam, containing fresh-water and land shells, and 
 the bones of elephants. Of the shells fomid in this series a 
 small proportion are of extinct si)ecies. The species of gravels 
 next described, and the oldest in which tlint implements are 
 found, is a series similar in structure to the above, and found 
 at a height o><e hwidrfd feet above the present level of the 
 river. In the Huviatile deposits overlying both thest^ gravel
 
 10 
 
 beds, remains of the mammoth, rhinoceros, and reindeer are 
 found. The age of these implements found in the second or 
 oldest series of gravel, is represented l)y t]w time wliicli it has 
 taken the river to cut out its channel to the depth 
 of one hundred feet added to the time necessary for the 
 formation of the peat, the age of which has already been 
 alluded to. One striking feature in comparing the relative ages 
 of the peat and the older gravels, is that whereas in the very 
 deepest layers of the former not one single specimen of any 
 extinct species has been found, in the latter a number of 
 extinct sj)ecies both of shells and of mammals have been 
 discovered. The above is a condensed and brief sketch of this 
 branch of Archaeology as given by Sir Charles Lyell and Sir 
 John Lubbock. 
 
 In South Africa, as we press nothwards among the 
 primitive Bushmen tribes, we find the stone age in some 
 measure still existing, though even amongst the wildest tribes it 
 is dying a sure but a lingering death. Throughout the wliole 
 of the Cape Colony wherever the observant traveller has set foot, 
 stone implements have been found. Some of them, notably 
 those from the Cape fiats, the more perfect in form and finish, 
 lie in recent deposits round existing vleys, or lightly buried 
 in sand, probably the products of an age in the innnediate past. 
 Others again of more antique and ruder mould are found in 
 deposits, at least in one instance with wliicli we shall shortly 
 deal, as ancient as tliose which they so nnudi resemble, found on 
 the banks of European rivers. Compared with the carefully 
 accumulated mass of evidence collected in Europe, our stock of 
 evidence is necessarilly slight — nevertheless, such as it is, so 
 nearly does it coincide with that more carefully collected 
 eviilence in Europe, that we may fairly offer at least a probable 
 interpretation. That interpretation which we have already 
 somewhat anticipated may be thus broadly stated. What
 
 11 
 
 evidence we have on tlic sul)je('t distinctly goes to show tliat a 
 stone age has existed in South Africa from a period in all 
 human probability as remote or approximately so, as that from 
 which it existed in Europe ; that for ages men in Europe and in 
 South Africa co-existed using almost identically the same 
 weapons, following closely the same mode of life ; finally, that 
 centuries after the genius of those hardy northern tril)es, 
 developing slowly at first, hut afterwards more rapidly, had 
 swept away the stony relics of a barbarous age, and placed 
 those tribes on the paths of civilisation and progress, the stone 
 age in this southern land continued to exist, and to this day 
 still lingers, dying a bard death in the deserts of the interior. 
 
 Having thus ventured in the hope of move surely enlisting 
 your interrst, to offer at the outset the interpretation of what 
 phenomena, what evidence we have to hand, let us turn to the 
 evidence itself. On the Cape flats, at Kimberley, on Modder 
 liiver, in the Peddie and East London Distriets, and doubtless 
 in many other parts of the countr3% stone implements have 
 been found, resembling general!}' the two leading types from 
 the valley of the Somme, viz., that of the spear-head and oval 
 shape. For directing attention to and collecting these stone 
 implements so abundant in South Africa, we have, as far as I 
 liave been able to gather, been principally indebted to Colonel 
 Bowker, Mr. E.J. Dunn, Mr. ]\Iackay of East London, and Dr. 
 Dale of Capetown. These implements have been found not 
 merely by twos and threes and as rarities, but in many sites 
 they have been foimd in al)undance. Here, as in Europe, it is 
 usual to find in addition to more or less well formed imple- 
 ments of the shapes above described, numerous fragments and 
 abortions — failures we might call them. Stone was cheap and 
 always ready to hand ; a bad instrument coidd always be thrown 
 aside without much loss. The mode of forming these imple- 
 ments is prett}^ obvious. The surface of some hard stone or
 
 12 
 
 rock, specially selected for the purpose, had flakes chipjied oif 
 it by blows pro])ably given by some rounded peb])le. In many 
 cases "cores" of hard stones from which liakes have been 
 chipped off are found h'intj; near a collection of implements and 
 fragments. The best formed and probably one of the most 
 modern implements Avhich I have seen, and which is at present 
 in my possession, is one of the si)ear-headed type found on the 
 Cape flats by Dr. Dale. It bears the marks on its surface of 
 numerous successive chij^pings, and has been shaped with 
 considerably more skill than the ruder weapons of greater 
 antiquity found in old deposits. A very good collection of 
 implements of difl'erent shapes and sizes, and from different 
 parts of the colony, may be seen in the Albany Museum at 
 Grahamstown. The interest of stone implements from .in 
 archa-ological point of view, depends, however, more u})on the 
 geological evidence in reference to the deposits in which they 
 are found, than upon anything else, as it is by this we are 
 principally enabled to form a probable estimate of their anti- 
 quit}'. With this object, I will now deal with those implements, 
 which thanks principally to the guidance of one of our silent 
 workers, Mr. Mackay of East London, I have been enabled to 
 collect myself. Never was there a site better adapted to the 
 wants of primitive man than the mouth ot the Buft'alo River 
 and its neighl)ourhood. It is theretore not strange that in this 
 locality abundant evidence of its having been the abode of man 
 from a remote period of time is to be found. A very interesting 
 and carefully constructed map of the locality round the mouth 
 of the river has l)L'un prepared l)y IMr. Mackay, showing the 
 sites of numerous " kitchen-middens," or shell mounds, exactly 
 resembling those "■ Kjokkenmodding " or ancient kitchen refuse 
 lieaps, described by Sir Charles Lyell as relics of the prehistoric 
 age on the shores of Denmark ; and further, showing the prob- 
 able sites of still more ancient habitations in the stone age, 
 those spots in fact where stone implements have been found in
 
 13 
 
 such abundance as to justify the presumption of the existence 
 of liabitations. With reference to [the shell mounds so freely 
 scattered ronnd the mouth of the river, I "will here merely say 
 that they hear evidence of considerable age ; they are buried in 
 many instances under sand and vegetable mould, and are in 
 some cases overgrown with thick bush, only having been 
 discovered by cuttings for railway and other purposes. Neverthe- 
 less, whatever the antitj[uity of these shell mounds, and in some 
 cases it is considerable, we shall presently* see that they came 
 into existence ages after stone-implements were first used in 
 this locality. 
 
 Turning now to the stone-implements themselves, we find 
 that those the antiquity of which, from their position, we are 
 best able to estimate, are found in a well-marked gravel deposit 
 on the western bank of the Buffalo. It lies about half way 
 between Fort Glamorgan and the Port Office, and runs in a 
 well-marked line about seventy feet above the present level of 
 the river and parallel to the present course. It has been 
 exposed in several places by cuttings for roads and by quarrj'ings 
 for building-stone road-mending and other purposes. It lies 
 buried under a well-defined layer of blaek river mud, this being 
 again covered with sand of wind-drifted origin, which in its 
 turn is in places covered by a layer of vegetable mould on which 
 grass and bush were at one time growing. The implements 
 found in this gravel are the types found in the valley of the 
 Somme. They are not however made of flint, which substance 
 is nowhere to be found in this district, but of a hard sub- 
 crystalline rock found in the inmiediate vicinity of the green- 
 stone dykes so numerous in South Africa. One of these dykes, 
 half a mile in width, which crosses the river obliquely, is 
 traversed b}- the Buffalo from the " ebb and flow " to the second 
 creek, a distance of about two miles. From the second creek 
 the edge of this dyke passes Fort Glamorgan to Point Hood, so
 
 14 
 
 tliat aLnnclaiice of tliis stone is <il»tjiiiia1)le in the immediate 
 neighbourhood. Several of the implements taken from this 
 f^ravel, have been sent to the Jermyn Street and British 
 Museums ; and their p;enuineness lias been reco<j;nised by Sir 
 Pioderiek Murchison and ^ir -I. Lubl)oek. The rock from which 
 these implements have been Haked oflf is not oidy extremely 
 hard, a property which j^ives to the implements their sharp 
 euttino- edges, but is tough aiui durable: and for these qualities 
 is was selected by the troops as material for building Fort 
 Glamorgan and the Commissariat Stores. These buildings 
 have now been in existence forty years. The weather-exposed 
 surface on the stones in these buildings is as fresh in colour, 
 the merest scratch with the chisel as clear, and every edge as 
 tharp, as if the buildings had been completed yesterday. The 
 implements made of this same stone have lost all semblance of 
 their original colour, their edges are blunted, they have an 
 outer decomposed crust one sixth of an incli in thickness. 
 These implements are fouiul scattered throughout the whole 
 line of gravel whenever it is exposed. At the time when this 
 line was the river's edge, as we shall presentl.y see we have good 
 reason to believe it once was, these implements were probably 
 dropped on or near the bank, and were subsequently washed and 
 rolled into their present prosition along with the surrounding 
 gravel. In some instances they have evidently l)een maiui- 
 factured and left on the very spot where they are now found. 
 " Cores "' of blocks from which weapons have been flaked off 
 have in several cases both by ^h. Mackay and myself been 
 found surrounded, not indeed by well-formed iuipleiueiits which 
 would naturally be carried oti" by the maker, but by numerous 
 fragments and ill-formed weapons which were probably thrown 
 aside as useless. It is not irrational to suppose, that the 
 water's edge with its open stony margin, would afford a con- 
 venient site to which the savage hunter might bring his block, 
 and hammer off with the aid of stones and pebbles his uncouth
 
 15 
 
 weapons. But, however that may be, whether dropped by 
 accident or left by design, there in their gravel bed they lay, 
 until in due course, a black muddy deposit, of from one to three 
 feet in thickness, covered them in. 
 
 That this gravel line, now so far above the river, was once 
 the river's edge, is from its nature, position, and appearance, 
 as well as from the history of similar old gravel deposits on the 
 banks of carefully explored European rivers, almost a matter of 
 certainty. But for further evidence bearing on this subject, 
 let us turn to the configuration of the sea coast near the river's 
 mouth. Assuming that then as now the river was tidal at this 
 point, and that this gravel line now so far above the tidal level, 
 was then the river's edge, we are left to the conclusion, either 
 that the coast has been raised or that the sea has receded. The 
 evidence afforded by a study of the coast itself affirms this 
 conclusion. To the south-western side of the mouth of the 
 river the land runs out into a rocky low-lying promontory, 
 the termination of the large iron-stone dyke, already alluded to, 
 and known as Point Hood High water level all round this 
 2)oint is at present marked b}- a line of huge rounded boulders, 
 and rising above this line are no less than three other well- 
 marked lines of similar boulders, each line undoubtedl}- showing 
 the level at which the sea once stood The highest of these 
 tiers of boulders lies about thirty feet above the present sea 
 level. Following round the coast in this direction, immediatel}' 
 beyond Point Hood, stretches a wide open vale some twenty feet 
 above sea level. All over the surface of this vale marme shells 
 are found, and there can be little doubt that it is the site of an 
 ancient bay. Assuming that the sea once stood at the level of 
 the highest tier of boulders on the Point, this vale now divided 
 from the beach by a series of low wind-drifted sandhills would 
 have been submerged. The marine shells found on its surface, 
 taken together with the fact that the low sand-hills which now
 
 16 
 
 divide it from llie beacli ;ire of more recent date than those 
 larger masses which line the coast beyond, justify the conclusion 
 that it was so. ('lear and distinct evidence tliat the sea has at 
 one time stood some thirty feet above its present level is thus 
 to be found l)y the most su})erticial observer. But as the gravel 
 line repiesenting the river's ancient edge near its present mouth 
 is seventy feet above that level, a somewhat interesting geological 
 (juestion arises. Was this portion of the river at the time when 
 it stood at this high level tidal, or was it not possibly a land- 
 locked reach of the river, with the river's mouth lying some 
 distance further out than it now does ? Either of these con- 
 ditions would account for the gravel bed, and its superincumbent 
 layer of mud ; but as I have above stated, such indications as 
 we have been enabled to lind incline me to take the former 
 view, viz., that then as now the river was tidal at this i)oint. 
 It is true that above the thirty feet level of boulders at Point 
 Hood, there is no such clear evidence of the sea's fonner 
 presence, but some is nevertheless to be found. The topmost 
 tier of boulders is already partially buried in sand and soil, and 
 from this point the land rises more gradually. In an artificial 
 cutting made some few hundred yards from the beach, and 
 standing some seventy feet above the present sea level, distinct 
 traces of a buried layer of rounded boulders are to be found, 
 boulders in all respects reseml)ling those on the beach. 
 
 Still, whichever view be the correct one, a point which 
 further investigation may yet decide, the broad fact renuiins 
 that from the time when the river stood at the height of this 
 gravel line, it has gi-adiially worn away the pi'esent chainiel To 
 accomplish this, has been no slight, no short-lived task. For 
 we have already seen that for two miles tlu; tidal portion of the 
 river runs through a large greenstone dyke. This igneous green- 
 stone rock id one of the hardest in existence, nevertheless, shice 
 the time when the river stood at the old gravel line, it has worn
 
 17 
 
 away its channel through this rock, to the depth of seventy feet. 
 To sum up a tolerably clear case. The age of the stone 
 implements found in this gravel l)ed, may fairly be computed to 
 be that period of time which has elapsed since this l)ed w.is the 
 river's edge, a period which has consisted of the time necessary 
 to allow the river through seventy feet of solid greenstone rock, 
 slowly to wear away for itself its present channel. To estimate 
 the period of time necessary for such a change as this, is as 
 difticult as to estimate the time which has elapsed since man 
 shared a half- frozen Europe, with the woolly-haired rhinoceros 
 and the mammoth. Taken in connection with the geological 
 evidence, however, there is one other point which is of great 
 interest in assisting us to form some rough idea of the great 
 antiquity of these implements. 
 
 The shell mounds found round the mouth of the Buffalo, 
 are in many instances situated close to the river banks. 
 Sections of some of these mounds have been made in cuttings 
 for roads and for the railway, thus exposing their structure, 
 and affording every facility for their investigation. They 
 consist of sand, shells, and bones of animals, while scattered 
 through them are found rude pieces of pottery Large hearth- 
 stones surrounded by ashes, have been found in one cr two 
 instances. The largest of these mounds, situated on the 
 eastern bank of the river, is of considerable magnitude. It has 
 l)een cut completely through, and amidst the del)ris a human 
 skull was found, and subsequently given to me by Mr. Mackay. 
 It is a small round skull with a low contracted brow, and is of 
 great thickness. It is like the skull of a Bushman or Hottentot, 
 and in all probability is the skull of an individual of one of 
 these races, or of some race very nearly allied to them. These 
 shell mounds very closely resemble the shell mounds 
 " Kjokkenmoddings," or kitchen-refuse heaps found on the 
 shores of Denmark, Init they differ in one important particular.
 
 18 
 
 The shell luouiuls in Demnarlv contain a considerahle nnniher 
 of polished stone cutting implements. The momids round the 
 mouth of the Buffalo have, although carefully explored, yielded 
 nothing but l)one implements, no cutting stone weapons of any 
 sort having been discovered. The mounds differ considerably 
 in size, nnd although similar in structure some are evidently 
 more recent than others. The largest, and in all probability 
 the oldest, is the large mound on the Eastern bank, from which 
 the skull was taken. As this mound shows a vertical section 
 throughout its entire depth, and as it possesses several features 
 of interest we will briefly consider it. It originally formed a 
 mound some three hundred feet long and 25 feet high, standing 
 on the slope which runs down from the signal hill to the river. 
 Quai'rying in connection with [the harl)our works was the 
 original cause o*" its being cut through. The portion nearest 
 the river was entirely removed. The inner portion is still 
 remaining, and shows the vertical section above alluded to. 
 The topmost layer consists of shells, l)ones, ashes, etc. A layer 
 some two or three feet in thickness is covered by three feet of 
 sand and vegetable earth, on which thick busli is now growing. 
 In fact the whole of the mound was completely covered with 
 thick bush, there being no sign of its existence until the cutting 
 was made. Besides shells, hearth-stones, ashes and bits of 
 pottery, bones of the elephant and hippopotamus, as well as 
 those of smaller animals and fish have been found. Most of 
 the larger bones have been split open, probably for the sake of 
 their marrow. Below the topmost layer of shells, another layer 
 of sand som.c two feet in thickness exists, separating the top 
 layer from the shells immediately below. After the second 
 layer although in places there seems to be an interstratilication 
 of sand, the separation of the layer of shells is not so distinctly 
 marked and towards the centre they all seem to form one block. 
 In this mound a very well formed bone implement some four 
 inches in length was found. It is spindle shaped with a point
 
 19 
 
 at one end and a blunt square termination at the other. It 
 might have been used as the head of a small spear. Besides 
 the hearth-stones and some large shapeless stones with fire 
 marks in their immediate neighbourhood, there is one other 
 kind of stone found, and one which has evidently been artificially 
 shaped. It is like the half of a rounded pebble The flat or 
 rather slightly concave surface is perfectly smooth, and has 
 obviously been brought into this condition by friction. Mr. 
 Mackay is of opinion that these stones were used for dressing 
 skins of animals with. In accordance with this interpretation 
 we may call the one stone implement hitherto found in these 
 mounds the " rubbing stone." The evidence as to the age of 
 this mound all points to its being considerable No one can 
 stand opposite the vertical section, and note the accumulation 
 of sand and vegetable earth, with thick bush ten feet high 
 growing on its surface, without this idea forcing itself upon him. 
 Yet before it could have begun to grow, sand and earth drifted 
 b}" the wind had covered in the abandoned mound to the 
 depth of several feet. Grass and bush have crept over its 
 surface and the whole mound has thus been completely buried 
 and hidden for how many years no one can say. Moreover the 
 accumulation of this mass of debris three hundred feet long and 
 twenty five feet high was in itself the work of no brief space of 
 time The outer margin of the mound at its base was within a 
 few feet of the river's edge before this portion of it was removed ; 
 so that when the original founders first made their homes ujjon 
 this spot the river cannot have stood at any appreciably higher 
 level tluin it does now ; hence, whatever the age of this mound, 
 and no unprejudiced observer will deny that it is considerable, 
 it is but a thing of yesterday compared to the antiquity of those 
 implements left on the water's edge when the river stood seventy 
 feet higher than it now does, or than it did when the foundation 
 shell of this huge mound was laid.
 
 20 
 
 It is not on an isolated ease of this sort, but on a collection 
 of such cases more or less similar from different parts of the 
 world, that the claim to the high antiquity of man upon the 
 ■^arth is made by scientific men. To state the actual age of 
 the old implement-bearing bed on the bank of the Buffalo is 
 beyond our power. But while on this point I cannot refrain 
 from quoting Sir Charles Lyell on the probable age of the oldest 
 implement-bearing gravel of the Somme. In doing so I do not 
 wish to claim for the opinion, any more than the author would 
 himself, anything but a certain speculative value. Yet from the 
 most brilliant geologist the world has yet known, even a 
 .speculative opinion of this sort must have some weight. Sir 
 Charles Lyell, on data which we have not here space to discuss, 
 esthnated the age of the Mississippi Delta as being about 100,000 
 years ; and he considered that " the alluvium of the Somme 
 3ontaining flint implements and the remains of the mammoth 
 and hyaena" was no less ancient. Whatever the anticjuity of 
 the oldest Somme implements may be, there can be little doul)t 
 that those forming the oldest implement bearing beds of the 
 Buffalo are fully as old if indeed, as there are good reasons for 
 believing, they are not considerably older. For while the 
 Somme a large constantly flowing river has had a chalk forma- 
 tion through which to cut its bed, the Buffalo with a stream not 
 one twentieth part its volume has had to wear its way through 
 two miles of solid greenstone rock. To cut a channel to the 
 depth of seventy feet under the latter set of circumstances is on 
 the face of it a far greater task than to cut one to the depth of 
 one hundred feet under the former. 
 
 Such then is the history of these implements as far as I 
 have been able to interpret it. For such opinions as I have 
 offered I have endeavoured as clearly as possible to furnish full 
 data, while my motive throughout has been a desire to arrive 
 at a true understanding of the question rather than to support
 
 21 
 
 any particular tlieor}' But, lookinj^ to the laborious researches 
 of scientific men in Europe on this question; to the lucid 
 exposition of the subject by Sir Charles Lyell and Sir John 
 Lubbock, and lastly to the startling i)arallel between the position 
 of the South African implements and those found in the ancient 
 gravels of the Somme, two broad conclusions Avith reference to 
 them are forced upon us. Fistly that they are undoubtedly 
 the handiwork of man. Secondly that they belong to an age of 
 high and remote antiquity. Admitting then the high antiquity 
 of man upon the earth, in what way does it affect that vast 
 problem of evolution as applied to the origin of man. To this 
 question Darwin himself makes answer. He says in his 
 introduction to " The Descent of Man.": — " The high antiquity 
 of man has recently been demonstrated by the labours of a lot 
 of eminent men, beginning with M. Boucher de Perthes, and 
 this is the indespensable l)asis for understanding his origin." 
 The crudeness of design and rudeness of execution of the older 
 stone implements often excites the ridicule of the gaping 
 curiosity critic. But what degree of skill would he be inclined 
 to attribute to the forefathers of the Bushmen or Australian 
 aborignes twenty thousand years ago ? Prof. Huxley one of 
 the greatest living authorities on Biology, has expressed it as 
 his opinion that the remains of the immediate pi'ogenitors of 
 man will eventually be found in the Pliocene or even in 
 the Miocene Strata. In several parts of the world by different 
 geologists the postpliocene formations have been estimated to 
 be considerably over two hundred thousand years old. Taking 
 these oi)inions, then, with as far as it goes the confirmatory 
 evidence of the stone age, we may fairly assume that in all 
 probability man's immediate progenitors existed upon tho 
 earth considerably over two liundred thousand years ago. 
 Amongst Englishmen, the third generation of descendants from 
 an}' son of the soil is considered capable of producing under 
 favourable circumstances tlie most polished courtier. I there-
 
 22 
 
 fore trust that two hundred thousand years will l)e sufficient to- 
 remove the prejudices of the most fastidious as to their ancestors 
 at that period. 
 
 Some time ago an interesting paper on the " Eaces of 
 South Africa and the question of Evolution " was read to the 
 Eastern Province Literary- and Scientific Society h}- the Bishop 
 of Grahamstown and was subsequentl}' pubUshed in the 
 Grahamstown " Journal." The question of how far the facts, 
 adduced in reference to these races, bear upon the question of 
 Evolution, is treated by the Bishop in a spirit of fairness and 
 moderation. In fact, on this great problem he expresses himself 
 as in accord with the Duke of Argyle w^hen he says " that the 
 difficulties involved by evolution are more scientific than 
 theological " With this liberal avowal the Bishop proceeds to 
 deal with the question in a critical manner. In reference to 
 these races he says : " Two answers may clearly be given 
 when we are asked how we account for the South African races 
 as they meet us here. First Ave may say that they have been 
 developed from beneath, having been during all their period of 
 humanity from the beginning utter savages, with a suspicion 
 that in some types we may light upon specimens not far removed 
 from the " missing link ; " or secondly we may reply that we 
 have good ground for the conclusion that they have been 
 evolved by degradation and degeneration from a higher estate 
 in the scale of humanity." The Bishop then states that his 
 observation has led him to favour the latter hypothesis. To 
 m_y mind neither of these answers full}' meets the case ; while 
 the rejection of the one surely does not, as the Bishop would 
 apparently imply, involve the acceptance of the other. There 
 is probably a measure of truth in both. The answer I should 
 make would be that the evidence hitherto collected on the subject 
 seems to point to the conclusion that the Bushmen, and pro- 
 bably also the Hottentots, are the true aboriginal inhabitants
 
 23 
 
 of Central aiul Southern Africa, while the numerous Kafir races 
 have niigrateil from more northern latitudes, destroying and 
 driving before them the feebler aboriginal tribes. A con- 
 siderable portion of the paper is devoted to showing that 
 numerous Kafir races have probably come in successive tides 
 of migration from some more northern part of the continent, 
 probal)ly from the North East. That tides of migration have 
 swept southwards across the continent, at any rate, during the 
 last hundred years is almost a matter of history ; and there is 
 doubtless evidence of this movement having gone on for some 
 time previous to that. The Arab strain in some of the Kafirs seems 
 strongly marked. That these races may also to some extent have 
 degenerated looking to numerous similar instances in history is 
 l)ossible, though the evidence in favour of this view adduced by the 
 Bishop, even if it had all the significance which he attaches to 
 it, would only point to a position but slightly inferior to their 
 present one. The evidence on this point whih he considers of 
 the greatest value is that afforded by their language. He says : 
 '' Instead of the languages of these uncivilized races being in a 
 state of development towards fulness and complexit}', we find 
 the tendency of the language is to degenerate, to get worn down, 
 simplifying conjugations and losing inflexions." Surely the 
 inflexional decay of a language, a stage through which all 
 languages pass to a greater or less extent, is no sign of the 
 degenera ion of that language. It is as I understand the science 
 of language, a stage in development rather than in degeneration. 
 On Darw'in's speculations as to the probaljle origin of language 
 the Bishop is somewhat severe. After quoting a few extracts 
 from Darwin's speculation on this subject, he says "It is curious 
 to quote the verp hypothetical tone of this enuciation of his 
 theory, ' probably,' ' might have,' ' does not appear altogether 
 incredible.' We search in vain for data in support of if. Dr. 
 Darwin given us none.'' As the most distinguishing quality 
 of Darwin's vast luminous mind is his careful impartiality and
 
 24 
 
 studious avoidance of overstatiiif]; anvthinf^, his hypothetical tone 
 on this question is not to be wondered at. The data in 
 support of ])arwin's views as to the probable origin of 
 language are given iu his third chapter of the "Descent of 
 Man." 
 
 But returning to the wider question of evolution, let us admit 
 for the sake of argument, not only that the great mass of Kafir 
 races have come from some centre in the northern portion of 
 Africa, but, that th.\7have in some measure degenerated. How 
 does this fact bear upon evolution ? As far as I can see it has 
 little or nothing to do with it. The whole history of the human 
 race has been one of migrations ; and instances of retrogression 
 have not been wanting, still looking to the great mass of 
 mankind as far as we know its history from the earliest times, 
 the broad tendency has been to travel forward like a rising tide, 
 on the wide paths of development and progress. The case of 
 the Bushmen still remains to be eonsidere.l. That they are the 
 descendants of any really higher race is a hypothesis with 
 absolutely nothing to support it. According to Theall their 
 condition when the Dutch first came to the country two hundred 
 years ago was very much what it is to-da}-, certainly no better. 
 Without stock of any kind, without agriculture, dependent on 
 their knowledge of roots and herbs, which like that of monkeys 
 is considerable, and on what carrion they can find or what 
 animals they can kill, they eke out a miserable existence. The 
 words of /Eschylus in writing of primitive man seem most 
 applicable : — 
 
 "But first, though sceiui;, they cHii not i)ei"ceivc 
 And hearing heard not rightly. But Hke forms 
 Of phantom dreams througliout their hfe's wliole length, 
 They muckiled all at random ; did not know- 
 Houses of brick that catch the sunlight's warmth, 
 Nor yet the wjrth of carpentry. They dwelt 
 In hollowed holes like swarms of tiny ants 
 In sunless depths of caverns."
 
 25 
 
 Their knowledge of painting is certainly a curious and in 
 respects a redeeming trait in their character ; hut that it is 
 evidence of any pre\ious higher condition, I cannot see. Without 
 cattle, crops, or even houses, it would h(! curious indeed if 
 possessed of any human intelligence at all, it should not lind 
 expression in something. Regarding the Bushmen, and i)rol)- 
 ahly also the Hottentots, as the aborigines of the country, it is 
 not unreasonable, taken with the discovery of the skull in the 
 East London shell mound, to regard them as the lineal descend- 
 ants of the men of the shell mound age in this country ; ver}' 
 probably also of the older stone age. Tlnj piguiy races of Africa, 
 of which the Bushmen are a branch, are at the present moment 
 attracting a good deal of attention. Stanley's description of the 
 numbers which inhabit the great forest show them to be very 
 widespread in the interior. There can be little doubt, moreover, 
 that these same pigmy races were known both to the ancient 
 Greeks and Romans. Still, whatever the origin and history of 
 the pigmy races may l)e no rational student of evolution would 
 contend that the diiference between the highest ape and lowest 
 Bushman is, scientifically speaking, a slight one. 
 
 The evidences of the existence of the progenitors of man on 
 the earth, as I have endeavoured to point out, are not to be 
 looked for a few hundred years back, but hundreds of thousands 
 of years ago. Evidence of the remote antiquity of man in this 
 country we have fully discussed. We have seen that it points 
 to his existence here many thousand years ago, when his imple- 
 ments were ruder than the lowest Bushman uses now ; for tli9 
 only stone implement of the Bushman of to-day of which I can 
 lind any authoritive record, is the rounded digging stone with a 
 hole in the centre, used for Meighting sticks with in digging up 
 roots. Livingstone in his "Last Journals," after making 
 special en(|uiry as to the use of stone implements, only mentions 
 the " digging-stone " among the Bushmen, and stones used as
 
 26 
 
 sledge hammers and anvils in the forging of iron amongst other 
 tribes. I have also consulted such works on African travel as I 
 have been able to obtain by Stanley, Cameron, Pinto, Grant, 
 Schweinfurth, and Du Chaillu on this point, but can find no 
 record of stone hatchets being in use now. The lowest Bush- 
 man is thus in all probability in a stage of development 
 considerably beyond that of the men of the old stone age. For 
 how long even before the old stone age period man in some 
 type may have existed no one can say. But to put the most 
 moderate construction on this evidence as to man's high 
 antiquity upon the earth ; it is just what we should expect to 
 lind were the Evolution theory as to his origin the true one, 
 and as far as it goes it is confirmatory of that theory.
 
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