H. H. CASTENS, Chief Secretary.
1. The public will ordinarily be permitted to visit and inspect the ancient ruins at Zimbabwe between the hours of 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., subject to the conditions prescribed by these rules.
2. Any person producing a written permit granted to him by the Administrator, or by a magistrate, or a printed ticket in the prescribed form for the admission of visitors to the ruins, will be allowed access to them. All such permits and tickets shall, before admission, be delivered to the caretaker or person in attendance at the time.
3. No person shall:—
- Dig or search within or about the walls of the ruins for minerals, precious stones, or curiosities; or
- Carry into any part of the ruins any spades or other tools; or
- Pan or sift any excavated soil in or about the ruins; or
- Remove any stone, wood, brick, or material from the ruins; or
- Remove trees, shrubs, or plants growing within or about the ruins, under a penalty, upon conviction, of a sum not exceeding £5.
NOTE B
ROBERT M. W. SWAN
We regret to record the death, which took place on March 26th last, of Mr. R. M. W. Swan, well known for his share in the earlier investigations of the ruins of Mashonaland. Mr. Swan was born in 1858, and after receiving a technical training in Glasgow University and in the laboratory of Mr. R. Tattock, went out to Spain in 1878 in the capacity of a mining expert. In 1879 he went to Greece, and the next seven years were spent in mining work, principally in Antiparos and neighbouring islands. In addition to his professional employment, he devoted much attention to archæology, publishing several papers on his researches, and sending many specimens to the British Museum. It was during this period that he first made the acquaintance of Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Bent, whom he accompanied during their visits to several of the islands, afterwards taking part in the expedition to Mashonaland, carried out by them in 1891, for the examination of the Zimbabwe and other ruins. During this expedition he undertook the cartographic portion of the work, executing for the first time a careful plan of the ruins, besides mapping the country along the routes followed, and fixing the positions of a number of points astronomically. When, after his return to this country, Mr. Bent described the results of his journey before the Society, Mr. Swan added some notes on the geography and meteorology of Mashonaland, and subsequently contributed to the Proceedings (May, 1892), a short paper on the orientation of the ruins, showing in a striking way the close connection which existed between the arrangement of the structures and the astronomical phenomena to which, as sun-worshippers, their builders had paid so much attention. The subject was more fully discussed in the section which he contributed to Mr. Bent’s Ruined Cities of Mashonaland. The theory which he developed was subjected to some criticism; but on returning to South Africa to continue his investigations, he collected data, which, as he claimed, fully bore out his ideas. During this journey, carried out in 1893, he examined various ruins, till then undescribed, besides doing something to improve the mapping of the country along his route, which led inland by way of the Limpopo.
This visit to South Africa lasted about two years, spent in part in geological and mining work. In 1896 he examined the mining districts of Western Australia and Tasmania, and in 1898 went to Siam with a similar object, leaving again, after a short visit to this country, for the Malay Peninsula, where he was engaged in mining work until his death, which took place at Kuala Lumpur after an operation for abscess of the liver. Here, as in South Africa, he did much careful cartographical and geological work.
Mr. Swan was an expert linguist, and from his residence in Greece had acquired a great love for the classics. He possessed a large store of knowledge on varied subjects, which he was always anxious to share with others. He was a Fellow of the Geological and Chemical Societies, as well as of our own, which he joined in 1893, having received the Murchison Grant in 1892. (Royal Geographical Society’s Journal, May, 1904.)