of the locality, and the help of map and compass, we had great difficulty in placing ourselves on the spot indicated on the map as No. 49. The whole country is so closely furrowed with ravines, into and out of which it is necessary to scramble constantly in order to make any progress, that it is almost impossible at times to maintain a fixed direction, and very difficult to identify quickly any of the minor features in the map with the locality.
The great feature, however, which there is no mistaking, and which was of chief importance to us, is the dull red band of ferruginous conglomerate that surrounds the oil-field, and in which Dr. Noetling found his flint chips. This bed is called by Dr. Noetling the zone of Hippotherium antelopinum, and is thus described by him on p. 87 of the 'Memoirs,' vol. xxvii. part 2:—"This zone forms a well-marked horizon in the sequence of the strata, and crops out in the shape of an elongated ellipse, the long axis of which measures two and quarter miles, while the short (transverse) axis amounts to slightly over a mile only."
In fact, the beds here, including this zone, have been raised from their original horizontal position by pressure on all sides into a long turtle-back dome, and then the crown of the dome has been shaved off, leaving their edges exposed all around the area of it.
The theory of Dr. Noetling is that the chipped flints belong to the zone of Hippotherium antelopinum, and to nowhere else, and that in this zone they are "not rare."[1] The remains found in this zone indicating a Pliocene, and perhaps even a Miocene age, it follows, if the above theory is correct, either that a considerable Pliocene population existed who made the chips, or else that these are natural pieces, and not the work of man. This alternative has probably induced many to reject the former as improbable, and, against their better judgment, to hold that the chips are natural.
But what becomes of the theory if they can be picked up, as Mr. Oldham says, on the plateau anywhere, quite apart from the zone of Hippotherium antelopinum? And what if, when picked up by scores, as they can be, some two hundred feet above the said zone, they can in some instances be fitted together again,
- ↑ 'Records,' vol. xxvii. 1894, part 3, p. 20.
