STONE IMPLEMENTS OF CEYLON. 117 



THE STONE IMPLEMENTS OF CEYLON.* 



By C. Hartley, M.A. (Cantab.). 



nnHE study of prehistoric implements in Ceylon is of 

 -* recent date compared with that in most European 

 countries, but still is older than many people suppose. The 

 earliest inquuy into the subject was due, as far as I am aware, 

 to Messrs. J. Pole of Maskeliya and E. E. Green, who has 

 so recently left the Island. Mr. Pole especially, with more 

 abundant opportunities for collection than Mr. Green, and 

 perhaps possessing greater interest m the subject, has for 

 some twenty-five years, and in spite of much incredulity and 

 discouragement, continued steadily accumulating specimens, 

 mostly from his own district, but partly also from more 

 distant quarters. He now owns a very large and representa- 

 tive collection, including several of the most interesting stones 

 which I have seen in this country. f 



On more than one occasion Mr. Pole sent specimens from 

 Ceylon to be examined by experts in India and, I believe, in 

 London ; but in each case with negative results. It was only 

 in 1907 that his contentions were completely verified by the 

 discoveries of two distinguished Swiss archaeologists. Dr. Paul 

 and Dr. Fritz Sarasin, who visited the Island in that year, 

 and in the limited time at their disposal established once and 

 for all the existence of abundant traces of a Stone Age. A full 

 account of their researches is contained in the volume which 

 they published in 1908, " Die Steinzeit auf Ceylon," describing 

 the excavation of caves and the search for surface specimens 

 on the hiUs of Uva;. Many of the best specimens figured in 

 their book are taken from the collection of Mi". Pole. 



* Read before the Ceylon Natural History Society, May 30, 1913. 

 t News of Mr. Pole's death in England reached Ceylon in July of this 

 year. 



