96 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 
so astonishing a resemblance to European flint, that I was 
led at first to suppose that they had been imported (in the form 
of ballast) in the days of our forefathers for the purpose of 
making strike-a-lights or gunflints. 
The occasional occurrence of a precisely similar material 
in the jungles of the Puttalam District, showing prehistoric 
workmanship proves this supposition unnecessary. 
An extremely remarkable white laminated chert occurs 
interbedded with the metamorphic rocks of the lower part of 
the basin of the Moderagam river in the Northern and North- 
Western Provinces ; while red and yellow jaspers of inferior 
quality are to be found near Pomparippu and in a few 
other districts. All these materials have been worked by 
prehistoric man. 
Tools of milky and crystal quartz occur as they do, in the 
hills, while certain large implements were made from granular 
quartz rock (sometimes wrongly called quartzite). Tools of 
quartzite and volcanic glass resembling obsidian, like the 
materials themselves, are exceedingly rare, as are those of 
sandstone. Some bits of hematite appear to have been 
“nibbled ”’ at and cast aside as useless. Once I came upon 
a pebble of white topaz which a stone-age man had attempted 
to flake under the impression that the material was quartz ; 
his blows soon developed the perfect natural cleavage of the 
mineral and he cast the stone away. But that was in the 
hills. 
Mr. Hartley records rounded pebbles of gneiss from hill 
sites. Personally I have never come across any tools composed 
of this material whether in the hills or lowlands. 
How important a thing is silica in the history of man !* 
With no other substance could he have developed his skill so 
well, given a latent intelligence, two hands, and a chunk of 
flint, the rise of civilization is assured. Without the flint (or 
a closely allied substance) and the hands to work it, the most 
potent intelligence on earth would not have enabled man to 
rise above the status of a cunning beast. 

* I suppose that 99 per cent. of the older stone tools of the world 
are composed of silica in one form or another. Quartz, jasper, chal- 
cedony, opal, flint, and quartzite are chemically identical. 
