THE SKETCHER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2320, 18 August 1898, Page 49

THE SKETCHER.

THE STORY OF MY DISCOVERIES.

Extract from "A Talk with Mr 11. W. SotonKarr," by Raymond Blathwayt, in Travel for June.

Two years ago Mr Seton-Karr, the wellknown traveller and explorer, was one morning in hot pursuit of a lion which, during the night, had carried away a sheep from the zareba. He was earnestly following up the wild beast's spoor, with his eyes fixed upon the ground, when he caught sight of a stone digging implement. "I at once saw," said he, " that it was a palaeolithic instrument, and a perfect type of the well-known implements that have been found frequently in Europe and Asia, but which had hitherto never been discovered in Africa. This, however, supplied the missing link, and afforded me a perfect instance of the continuity of the human race. Sir John Evans was much pleased with my account of what I hnd seen, as he considered that it .seemed to elucidate the course by which human civilisation, such as it was, if not indeed the human race, proceeded westward from its early home in the East ; so that the discovery aided in bridging over (he interval between palaeolithic man in Britain and India, and added another link to the chain of evidence by which the original cradle of' the human family may eventually be identified, and tended to prove the unity of race between the inhabitants of Asia, Africa, and Europe in palaeolithic times. ' Here we are,' said I, forgetting the lion, which, I may add, we lost altogether, to the great disgust of the SomaJis, 'now I have indeed found the missing palaeolithic link.'" •' The country in which I stood was a rolling upland, an immense plain about 5000 ft above tho sea. I knew, therefore, that if I was to find more of these implements, I mafet look fcr them upon a hill where the settlement must have been in those far-off days. Carefully surveying the district, I caught a glimpse of a long lev/ hill some 15" miles from where I &toocl. ' That is where they lived,' said I ; and so on the following morning I struck camp and we started off for this district. After a march of eight hours or so we arrived at the hill. Here I discovered that there were four rivers converging there, three of winch surrounded the hill, the fourth joining at the foot of the MIL from the north. On the east was an immense basaltic plateau, perpendicular clifts enclosing the north and east sides ; through this the four streams united forced their way by a narrow and precipitous gorge. This exactly resembles the physica 1 features of the Garden of Eden a« described in the Bible. This hill is covered with an exquisite forest of mimosa and other trees ; there is also a beautiful variety" of alee plants, flowers of the most exquisite tints ; grasses of every description, which were greedily devoured by flocks of sheep tended by Somaliland children, and goats the most beautiful in the world.

" ' Yes,' I said to myself. ' There is the gorge in which the Angel of the Lord stood with his flaming sword.' Or," continued my host, "if you wi&h to explain it on natural grounds, we may iake it that the Cherubim with the flaming sword was in reality the volcano which threw up this barrier of once molten lava, in which case Adam would have been driven westward into the middle of Africa. I was pretty well convinced by then that I was actually standing ,m the Garden of Eden. I camped down by the biggest river for the sake of tho water, and from there I made daily visits to the hill, and searched the ground thoroughly for pakeolitluc instruments, which I found in a quantity far greater tlwn have ever been discovered in any part of the world, and of the most perfect description, as well as of the earliest period. For aught I know, I discovered the very spade with which Adam delved. There were, of course, no remains of dwellings. They were pastoral people, who dwelt then, as they do now, in skin tents. When I speak of 'Adam,' I speak of him in the sense of prehistoric man. Amongst the instruments I discovered were small stone axes, stone hammers, grindingstones for pulverising seeds, made of quartzite, and small flakes of flint with sharp edges, to be used as we use a knife. There were disc-shaped scrapers, for dressing hides, kite - shaped and spoon - shaped. Looking about for evidence of fire, I found iron pyrites, which were evidently used by Adam to strike a light with. Then there were stone borers for sewing the skins together with sinews. * Adam and Eve made breeches for themselves,' as the old Bible has it, although, of course, they first used fig leaves, and sure enough I saw a number of fig trees in the immediate vicinity. There were heavy javelin heads of stone which he lashed on to handles, and which he probably needed badly to teach the animals, of which there must have been great quantities, a severe lesson. Sling-stones lay about the ground in great profusion. I must correct the common impression that Adam dug with a spade made in Birmingham. He did not. lie used a heavy, pointed stone digging implement, of which I discovered great numbers. Of course Adam returned to Eden as soon as the Tree of Life had been removed. Ib is quite certain that Eden was largely populated in later days, as we arc distinctly told that 'Eden traded with Tyre. 1 We must take it that Africa was, according to Iluxley and Darwin, the country of Eden and the home of man. ' And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden. 1 A3 Dr Cunningham Geikie says, ' Eden, a name derived from the old arcadian word for " a country plain," not, as has been supposed, from the Hebrew word for delight, has been sought for in every part of Uw world ' ; but I k«we good reason, from

physical conformations for my own theory that the garden lies in Somaliland."