23 MARCH 1907, Page 25

The Stone Implements of South Africa. By J. P. Johnson.

(Longmans and Co. 7e. 6d.)—Mr. Johnson arranges his "finds" in the order which they have in the scale of culture, beginning with the Primitive and bringing them down to the Neolithic. And here he has something to say that is well worth noting about a disputed question in palaeontology. At a spot not far from Campbell (Griqualand West) eoliths have been found in large quantities in gravel drift. This gravel is mainly jasper, and must have come thirty miles by a stream which no longer exists. This is a proof of great antiquity. The interest of these specimens is undoubted. Mr. Johnson says that they "throw con- siderable light on the eolith question "—there is still a sceptical party—" and this testimony, in my opinion, is only capable of one interpretation,—namely, that they are in truth primitive man's first attempt to trim pieces of stone to a useful shape." All this passage about the eoliths is well worth attention; it should go a long way towards settling the question.