MEN OF 250,000 YEARS AGO.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 August 1922, Page 9

MEN OF 250,000 YEARS AGO.

RELICS FOUND IN CAVES. POSSIBLY A WHITE RACE. The report of Mr. Harold Scott Harger, the best-known geologist in South Africa, who has just explored for the Daily Mail the recently discovered mummy caves at Koster, 100 miles west of Johannesburg, South Africa, shows that while the caves resemble many others in the Transvaal, the surrounding district reveals ample evidence of occupation by a race of considerable intelligence at a very remote period. The expedition penetrated a long way Underground, ultimately reaching a place probably more than 150 ft. below the surface, where a steep dangerous descent leads apparently to another series of ■averns still farther underground. ® It was here that a boy who explored the plad? a little while ago says he heard the sound of rushing water, and Mr Harger concluded that there probably was once an underground stream. Owing to insufficient* rope, it was impossible to descend lower into the ©owe'.s of the earth, and Mr. Harger lid not think such a descent would disaJoep anything of great value, so he retraced his steps. HAND-PLANED BONES. The freshness of the air pointed to Bcmneetion with other caverns opening j fo the atmosphere, but owing to the

vast maze of caverns and fissures no additional outlet could be discovered. It is possible that yaces of primitive man might be found beneath several feet of bat guano covering the floor ! of the main cave, though Mr. Harger ■ thinks it probable that the first en- ’ trance —down a 70ft. vertical shaft — would deter human beings from living . there. ■ In the second cave, more accessible from the veldt. Mr. Harger and Mr. Roberts, of Pretoria Museum, found bones which had been planed down by the hand of man, possibly the work of bushmenfn the surrounding district Mr. Harger found stone implements- which pointed to the occupation of the area by a somewhat superior race, possibly white, at least 250,000 years ago. These included well-ground and drilled implements of symmetrical proportions typical of the Neolithic period in Europe and Asia. He considers the Koster area the finest in South Africa from an anthropological standpoint' and inclines to the theorv that it was once occupied by ! primordial men who subsequently mov- • ed northwards towards Europe. Mr. Harger says it might be that diamonds had been found underground at Koster, but he saw nothing to support ’ the theory of the existence of a river of diamonds in any underground i stream.