REVIEWS. 267 



One word should be said concerning the supposed 

 palaeohths figured in Plates I. and II. (chert). The probabihty 

 of these dating back to the palseohthic age has the high 

 authority of the late Mr. Bruce Foote. My own opinion on 

 the subject, after an examination of the stones, is that it would 

 be unsafe to regard them as certainly belonging to so early 

 a phase, unless it can be shown that palaeolithic types persisted 

 in Ceylon till a very recent date, as was undoubtedly the case 

 in Tasmania. According to my view there is nothing in the 

 workmanship which differentiates them beyond controversy 

 from a clumsy neolithic chopper or even core, while the unworn 

 and recent appearance of the material contributes to throw 

 doubt upon their extreme antiquity. It should be added 

 that their type, if they were admitted to be palaeolithic, would 

 cause them to be referred to a pre-mousterian age, that is, 

 to a period antedating the earliest complete skeletons which 

 we possess from France and Belgium, the Neanderthal skull, 

 and probably even the Gibraltar remains. There is nothing 

 incredible in this theory ; but for its acceptance it needs 

 strong confirmation based upon a larger and more varied 

 collection of stones than is at present available. Indubitable 

 palseoHths will be discovered in Ceylon first, if at all, in 

 gravel-beds. 



I would add in conclusion that the Colombo Museum has 

 lately acquired the whole of the late Mr. Pole's collection of 

 stones. With the consent of the authorities I have gone care- 

 fully through the entire series, and among much that was 

 worthless I have found a really considerable number of un- 

 doubted stone implements, including scrapers (round and 

 hollow), borers, blades, and in particular over sixty pigmy 

 implements of quartz. One large round scraper of chert is by 

 far the finest specimen which I have yet seen from Ceylon, and 

 is worthy of a place on the shelves of anj'^ Museum ; of the 

 pigmies, many are of the best type and deserving of the closest 

 study. On comparing the available implements with the 

 specimens selected for illustration in Mr. Pole's book, it is at 

 once apparent that the author, with all his merits, was not 

 qualified to distinguish the bad from the good. It is even more 



