116 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 
The low degree of culture evidenced by the early plateau 
tools suggests that man first came to Ceylon on foot and not 
in ships. Moreover, the large mammalia must have come 
hither thus, so that we may infer a land connection between 
Ceylon and some other country, most probably India, in the 
past. It is reasonable to assume that our land stood higher 
then than now, since by a smallelevation a connection with the 
continent would be established. Have we any evidence, then, 
that Ceylon was ever higher? Indeed, we have. Besides 
the buried plateau of the Pearl Banks, which seems to point 
to such conditions, we have the fact, which I was incidentally 
able to establish when boring in the Western Province and 
Sabaragamawa, that the ancient bottoms of modern rivers, 
vertically beneath their present beds, are now below sea-level. 
I will not elaborate this point, though its side issues are 
important ; it is sufficient for our purpose now to realize that 
when man first came the land was higher. 
Now we come back to the plateau gravels, which were depo- 
sited after man arrived ; and when, as we have seen, the land 
was lower, at a time, too, when the connection with India 
had doubtless broken down. Who were these people? Did 
they make the frosted ‘“‘ Eoliths ” which one finds associated 
with a better type of tool in the plateau beds? Are these, 
indeed, derived from older sites? For my part I answer 
probably. And the plateau gravel, how came it to be strewn 
about the ancient plain? How comes the plain at all? 
The surface of the beds below the gravel is likely enough an 
old sea bed converted into land by elevation ; but the gravels 
are not sea gravels ; of that I am persuaded. 
They have none of the characters of a marine deposit. But 
that they were low-lying and liable in places to inundation 
by the sides we have already seen. 
What cause can weascribe to the midden-like accumulations 
and wide occurrence of these beds? Glaciers will not do ; 
yet no other ordinary agency is half as capable. The cause 
seems catastrophic. An alternative suggests itself, and that 
is Noah’s flood ! 
The legend of the deluge is so universal and so ancient that 
one can hardly escape from the conclusion that it originated 
