114 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 
from what it was when these beds were laid down. It is 
quite certain that the valleys and flats separating these 
elevations have been carved out since plateau days. One can 
hardly escape from the conclusion that the present isolated 
outcrops once formed part of a huge plain surrounding the 
hill country of Ceylon. Since these outcrops are now well 
above the sea, though bordering upon it, it must follow that 
in plateau times the coast line cannot have been situated 
where it now is. 
We may suppose, if we like, that the country as a whole 
stood at much the same elevation as it does to-day, but that 
the coast line was situated further out in what is now the 
Indian ocean ; or we may suppose that the country as a whole 
has risen in relation to the sea. From general considerations, 
which I will not go into now, the latter supposition is preferable. 
But I can produce something more than supposition. Near 
Ranna, in the Southern Province, some of the plateau repre- 
sentatives contain the shells of marine mollusca, similar to 
those which now inhabit the very shallow inlets of the sea 
that run into the coast, like salt pans. 
The beds which hold these fossils are now some 50 feet 
above the ocean, while the breakers themselves are within 
shouting distance. We must believe then that the relative 
altitudes of sea and land have changed. Whether the ocean 
has subsided or the land has risen, or whether both have 
moved, I will not discuss in detail; but since the plateau 
beds have undergone a small amount of folding, we know 
that the land is at least in part responsible. 
What were the conditions under which early man lived 
in Ceylon? When did he arrive? Was he or was he not 
succeeded by another people before the Veddas came ? 
Let us go back to the days before the plateau beds were 
deposited and discover, if we can, what in general were the 
then conditions of the country. 
Ceylon is an ancient land. The great majority of its rocks 
are among the oldest known. They belong to what: is called 
the Archean epoch; and some of them, according to the 
last pronouncement of my friend Mr. Arthur Holmes, who 
