274 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 
the beginning of the jungle phase, the stratum itself, as such, 
is older; it is, as it were, a reservoir for decaying plants. 
All fresh material added is younger (and if it falls upon the 
surface is separable from the mass) ; but much of the organic 
contribution takes the form of decaying roots, which penetrate 
and add to a bed which is older than the ancient beach at C. 
Such, then, appears to be the history of the more recent 
deposits of the coast. There is nothing remarkable in this 
succession of movements ; a similiar story may be read round 
almost every coast line of the world—a fact which has been 
more or less realized ever since the publication of Leopold von 
Buch’s classical researches on the Baltic and elsewhere.* 
IV.—PALZONTOLOGICAL EVIDENCE. 
If the Wellawatta horse is to be considered as a contem- 
porary of early man, certain structural differences may be 
expected between it and the modern Hquus caballus, but I 
am not aware that any great difference necessarily exists. 
The question arises, too, Was the horse introduced by early 
man from India, or was it part of the indigenous fauna of 
Ceylon? This is a question to which no definite answer can 
be given ; but it seems unlikely that Stone age tribes would 
have deliberately brought the creature to this country, for 
the domestication of the horse by so primitive a people as 
that announced by the plateau antefacts must be considered 
doubtful. In the absence of evidence to the contrary one 
must assume that horses reached the Island, as the elephants 
and other large mammalia did, of their own accord by means 
of a land connection. That pre-historic Ceylon did know 
the horse is probable, as we have seen, from the Mahawansa 
(excerpt 4). 
It has been suggested that the discovery of a couple of 
teeth is not enough to establish the existence of ancient horses 
in the Island ; but the objection is hardly valid, for although 
there can be no doubt that elephants have inhabited the 
forests since pre-historic days, no well-authenticated discovery 
of their fossil remains has been recorded, despite the fact that 
the officers of the Mineral Survey have paid special attention 


** Reise durch Norwegen und Lapland.” 1810. 
