STONE AGES OF CEYLON. 103 
deposit belonging to the modern era, The gravel bed is not 
always present, but whether this or the other member of the 
series, the red earth, directly overlies more ancient beds, the 
contrast in colour between the older rocks and the plateau 
deposits is striking, except when the former have suffered 
laterization. (See Appendix B.) 
A typical plateau gravel in this country consists of a powdery 
deposit stuffed with stones, of which well-rounded pebbles are 
in the minority. It contains stone-age tools and flakes of 
both chert and quartz. The former, to judge by their surface 
appearances alone, are of every age from the newest to the 
oldest ; the quartz flakes, too, give one a similar impression. 
It is evident that in this jumble of things, apparently ancient 
and apparently new, with a mixture of perfectly rounded and 
perfectly angular detritus in an earthy matrix, we have a 
deposit of no ordinary kind. These things are certain : it is 
not marine ; it isnot a common soil; it is not any ordinary 
accumulation at all. More than anything else it suggests a 
glacial till; but I may say at once that no theory of its 
origin founded on the presence of ice in this country: can be 
entertained, for there is not the slightest evidence of past 
glaciation in Ceylon. 
The apparent diversity in age of the contained artefacts is 
almost certainly deceptive, although it is probable that in 
the plateau gravels we have tools of more than one period. 
Among the specimens which I have obtained in situ, some 
highly frosted forms, recalling eoliths, and the occasional 
inclusion in plateau beds of masses of conglomerate, suggest an 
older deposit, from which the gravels have been in part 
derived. 
The red earth which overlies the gravel is of simpler com- 
position and justifies its name, in that it is best described as 
an earthy material of a brick (or venetian) red colour. It is 
remarkably free from stones or other foreign material, except 
very occasional flakes and artefacts. 
I have examined: a number of samples from various parts of 
the country, and I find that the following general description 
applies to all of them. They consist essentially of sand grains 
and very finely divided material, which is probably a mixture 
