262 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 
burial ; for, since it was evident that the strata had not been 
disturbed, the possibility of burial in a refuse pit or of deliberate 
interment was out of the question. The fragmentary nature 
of the coral stratum above the teeth was not at first realized, 
and the hypothesis advanced at the meeting of the Ceylon 
Natural History Society, already referred to, was that the 
teeth had been carr‘ed to their position in the section by means 
of a mud stream (the gray sandy clay) which flowed into a 
kind of cavern, the roof of which was formed of coral rock. 
Apart from the improbability of this explanation arising 
from the difficulty of accounting for the cavern in the first 
place, the discovery of the fact that the coral stratum was a 
fragmentary and not a solid one gave the deathblow to the 
cavern theory, and substantiated the opinion—which I had 
reason to confirm when subsequently visiting the site with 
Dr. Pearson—that the teeth were, geologically speaking, in 
situ. There is nc @ priori reason why the remains of a horse 
introduced by Europeans should not be found under cireum- 
stances similar to those pertaining to the Wellawatta remains. 
One has only to postulate certain land movements within the 
last few centuries, and the occurrence of the fossil remains 
of a modern horse may easily be accounted for. But the 
question is essentially geological, and the answer must be 
determined by evidence afforded by the recent marine and 
estuarine deposits around the coast. It was with due regard 
to these that I stated my opinion that the remains are those 
of a creature whose advent long antedated the European 
occupation of the Island, and in all probability the Sinhalese 
invasion of Lanka. 
Some exception has been taken to my use of the term 
“ fossil.” The following quotation from Sir Archibald Geikie 
will serve as my justification :— 
The term ‘‘fossil,”’” meaning literally anything ‘‘dug up,” 
was formerly applied indiscriminately to any mineral substance 
taken out of the earth’s crust, whether organized ornot. Ordinary 
minerals and rocks were thus included as fossils. For many 
years, however, the meaning of the word has been so restricted 
as to include only the remains or traces of plants and animals 
preserved in any natural formation, whether hard rock or loose 
superficial deposit. The idea of antiquity or relative date is not 
necessarily involved in the conception of the term. Thus, the 
