120 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 



chert specimens being extremely rare by comparison ; but it 

 is a remarkable fact that considerable numbers of chert chips, 

 cores, and fragments are found in almost all places where 

 implements occur ; and it remains a problem what they did 

 with the quantities of chert which they undoubtedly handled. 



Before p;'oceeding further, I should say a word about the 

 places in which these Neolithic remains are found. They are 

 invariably on hill tops, and at all altitudes from sea-level to 

 the Horton Plains. Of course they can only be seen where 

 the land has been cleared, as on cultivated estates or on 

 grass;^ hills which have lost their top soil by weathering, as 

 in Uva. But I have no doubt that spade-work would bring 

 them to light almost everywhere. I have found them close 

 to the Naga Pokuna of Mihintale, and amid sand just dredged 

 from the sea-bottom at Jaffna. The bright, clear chips 

 stand out vividly against the crumbling earth of the hills, 

 and often in such numbers as almost to hide it. 



At very rare intervals one picks up among these brand-new 

 chips stones of another type, fragments of chert worn and 

 weathered, but still retaining indubitable traces of man's 

 handiwork. It is not so much in size or in style of work 

 that they vary from the usual rather shapeless fragments that 

 one finds scattered broadcast over the patanas, but in colour 

 and texture of the material. They are heavily patinated, 

 which in itself is regarded as a proof of antiquity ; they are 

 generally light in colour, and their surface is spongy and 

 porous, differing markedly from the close, compact grain 

 of newly -fractured chert. These I believe to be rare survivals 

 of the Palaeolithic Age ; but as they are found at present only 

 on the surface, it would be rash to assume it without further 

 proof. Before we can be sure of their identity, it will be 

 necessary to discover them deep below the modern surface in 

 gravel-beds, possibly in association with the remains of 

 extinct animals. Such a find has of course never been made 

 in Ceylon ; but I do not despair of some really valuable 

 discovery being made, if we can interest gem-seekers in the 



