The record-union., 1897-10-10
HERE IS AGE.
COLLECTION OF
STONE IMPLEMENTS.
Found in a Spot Which May
Have Been the Garden
of Eden.

Forty centuries look down upon
your cried Napoleon, as he marshaled
his soldiers to battle under the shadow
of the Pyramids. The Pyramids were
not built yesterday, but in the light of
recent archaeological discoveries they
must be regarded as very recent works
of man.
The visitors at the National Museum
may examine a collection of stone i'm
plements in a remarkably perfect state
of preservation, to which the most eX
pert archaeologists CT to-day ascribe an
age of not less than from one hundred
I thousand to two hundred thousand
years. 1t is the most recent acquisition
to the museum, and is portion of a col
lection made last year in the deserts Of
Somaliland by II. w. Seton Karr,
Well-known English archaeologist and
big game hunter. He was the first ex-
plorer, in 1885, of the Mount ST Elias
range, in North America. More re-
Gently he has confined his explorations
and hunting expeditions to Southwest
ern Asia and Eastern Africa, and has
amassed large and very valuable col
lection of prehistoric remains. Three
years ago he made thorough study of
the Daleolithc collections in England,
notably that of Sir John Evans of the
Royal Society, and with that savant
gave great deal of time to prehistoric
| research.
On account of the rich finds in the up
per Nile Valley by Professor Flinders
Petrie the eminent Psychologist Seton
Kari, was led to believe that diligent
! exploration in the regions farther to the
south and east would be productive of
great additions to the scientific knowl-
edge of prehistoric man. Accordingly
early last year he started in to make
a general survey of the Eastern African
| deserts. AT first he was rewarded by
the discovery of a large number of
stray fiints in the vicinity of Thebes,
and from the condition and localities in
which they were found the explorer felt
certain that they had no historic con-
nection with the comparatively mod
ern temples and pyramids of Egypt
Encouraged by this success, he pressed
further into the desert, in the hope of
finding authentic traces of the lost flint
mines. which he believed had existed in
that region.
He directed his journeyings into the
Ad4ld vi lIl6 btuOuIIlS, anu DY constant
intercourse with the nomads, endeav-
ored to learn from them the where
abouts of any remains of typographical
conditions which gave promise of salts
flying his quest. After hundreds of
miles of fruitless wanderings over a
WaterleSS and treeleSS country
he would be rewarded now and
again by some little discov-
cry, often of Indifferent value in
itself, but sufficient to keep alive the
hope that he was on the right track
Finally, late in November of last year
| in the hidden cliff plateaus of the Wady
Sheik, accompanied by his caravan of
| Bedouins and camels the intrepid
scientist came upon appearances of
| ruined cities of vast extent, stretching
for miles or more across the desert, and
here unmistakable evidences of aban-
doned mines of very great antiquity
We're found. Each of the mines was
| characterized by it's own special type
| of implements, which experts have
since agreed was of the greatest pos
sible interest and were previously I'M
known to science. 1t is a quantity of
| these relics, numbering about hun
dred objects, that comprises the latest,
and in many respects, the most valuable
addition to the collections of the Ma
| tiCnal Museum.
Scattered all over the region were
found stone axes wedges, spear heads,
| rings, dirks, sickle shaped knives and
hundreds of stone truncheons, resem-
bling a policeman's baton, with which
the other articles were probably shaped.
| Many of these evidently lay as the
workmen had last left them when they
went home to dinner, thousands of
years before Thebes or Memphis were
| even dreamed of. The implements
were found in a fine state of preserva-
ton. On the long, low hills of Central
| Somaliland great numbers of the stone