History and Ethnography of Africa South of the Zambesi, Vol. 1 of 3

Book excerpt: Excerpt from History and Ethnography of Africa South of the Zambesi, Vol. 1 of 3: From the Settlement of the Portuguese at Sofala in September 1505 to the Conquest of the Cape Colony by the British in September 1795 IN the present condition of geological knowledge it is impossible to determine whether South Africa has been the home of human beings for as long a time as Europe, but it is certain that men have roamed over its surface from an exceedingly remote period. The ancient shell mounds along the coast are usually regarded as furnishing one proof of this fact. The first of these that was examined carefully was a heap formerly to be seen in a cave at Mossel Bay, but one much larger has of late years been discovered on the left bank of a tributary of the Buffalo river at East London. Its discovery was due to the opening Of a way to a quarry, for it had the semblance of a natural mound, being covered with a deep layer of vegetable soil, in which trees were growing; and this appearance it had presented as far back as could be traced. Upon examination which was very thorough, as over thirty-two thousand cubic metres of it were removed to fill a lagoon - it was found to consist of a mass 4572 metres or one hundred and fifty feet long and metres or forty feet deep, composed of oyster. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.