? EQUUS ZEYLANICUS. 271 
of the ancient and modern beaches with the deposits below 
them to the inlets of the coast shows these sediments to be 
younger than the plateau gravel. Moreover, since the gravel 
has yielded Stone age relics, it must be inferred that the 
coastal deposits have accumulated during the human period, 
that is to say, within (? Pliocene), Pleistocene, and Holocene 
times.* 
From a comparison of the kadu-suli of the northern flats 
with buried teeth-yielding deposit exposed at Wellawatta, 
one may reasonably infer that the creature of which the 
relics once formed part, met its death, as many others have 
subsequently done, on the open plains by the ocean. Since 
that time the coast has been depressed in relation to the sea 
to a depth of over 20 feet. There can be no doubt that this 
did not take place during the European occupation of the 
Island, for the sandstone, which we have taken as our geo- 
logical datum, is certainly more recent than the gray sandy 
clay, and was used by the Portuguese and Dutch in the con- 
struction of their buildings. Nor is it likely to have occurred 
during any period of the Sinhalese occupation, for, although 
minor oscillations may be inferred from some legends in the 
Mahawansa,t no depression of anything like 20 feet can 
be admitted within the historical period, inasmuch as the 

* The tertiary periods arranged in a descending order of antiquity 
read as follows :—Holocene; Pleistocene; Pliocene; Miocene; Oligo- 
cene ; Hocene. The nomenclature refers to the percentage of certain 
living species present. The Holocene period, in which we are now 
living, begins with the newer Stone age, and is characterized by an 
almost entire absence of extinct species. 
+ A minor movement or, more probably, an abnormal wave like 
that of 1907, is recorded in the Mahawansa (Wijesinha’s translation, 
1889, Part IIL., p. 84) as follows :— 
1Tissa, the sovereign of Kalyani, had a brother named Utttya, who, 
terrified at the resentment borne to him on the king’s detection of his 
criminal intercourse with the queen, fled from thence. This prince, 
called Uttiya, from his grandfather (king of Anuradhapura), established. 
himself in another part of the country (near the sea). From that 
circumstance, that division was called by his name. The said prince, 
entrusting a secret letter to a man disguised in the garb of a priest, 
despatched him to the queen. (The messenger) repairing thither, 
stationed himself at the palace gate ; and as the sanctified chief théra 
daily attended the palace for his repast, he also unobserved entered 
(with that chief priest’s retinue) the royal apartment. After having 
1°° Now there was a sovereign of Kalyani called Tissa, a Kshatriyva, 
whose brother Uttiya, terrified,’ &c. 
