According to Rev. George Thom* (1830) "Mr Enislie", described as "a merchant formerly of Cape Town", was the first person to recognise and collect fossils in the older geological strata of the South African interior, in 1804 or 1805. (Fossil shells had been recognised in raised beaches and other recent deposits along the coast by W. Paterson* in 1779, and what were probably trace fossils were observed near Calvinia by H. Lichtenstein* in 1803). The discovery was made at the Keizie Baths, behind Cogman's Kloof, where fossil shells were found in the Bokkeveld strata. These rocks are of Devonian age, that is, 395 to 345 million years old. The collector's notes on the strata, as well as the fossil shells, were made available to Thom.
Although "Mr Enislie" has been recognised as the discoverer of the fossils of the Bokkeveld Group by later authorities such as Rogers (1937) and MacRay (1999), a computer search of the Cape archives and a search of several lists of the inhabitants of the Cape at the time of the discovery reveals no trace of anyone named Enislie. The name may be a misprint, perhaps for that of the prominent Cape merchant John Elmslie.
