STONE AGES OF CEYLON. Zs 
The climatic conditions of the Pleistocene period caused 
the rivers to fill their valleys and discharge their loads 
during one or both of the monsoons over the coastal flats: In 
these deposits were buried the implements of early stone-age 
man. 
As the ice sheets of other lands retreated towards the poles, 
the rainy phase of the Tropics passed away ; and the drier 
monsoon winds, laden with the fine detritus of the coast, 
spread a mantle of sand over the low-lying regions. In those 
days the low-country probably resembled the arid waste 
which now exists on the eastern coast of the Jaffna peninsula. 
Later elevation re-asserted its sway, and the denuding 
agencies of rain and sun and wind began to develop the 
features of modern lowland geography. 
With the new condition of things came Neolithic man, but 
whether of a race apart from the people of the Pleistocene 
nobody can say. Later still came the Veddas and the Naga 
people from Southern India,* and finally, the Sinhalese, whose 
advent brought the prehistoric epochs to a close. 
The above, I submit, are outlines of the Stone Ages of 
Ceylon—sketchy outlines, nothing more. 
A great deal of work must be accomplished and much detail 
added before these outlines can assume the aspect of a tolerable 
picture. Nor do I blind myself to the fact that some alteration 
of the outlines may be necessary. In the main, however, 
I fancy they will stand. For what they are worth I give 
them here now; and it is for others to investigate and 
criticise. 
If any one will take the subject up and work upon it 
systematically, he cannot fail to achieve valuable results. 
Moreover, if he is unable to carry on research in the wilder 
districts of the Island, where, in addition to the human interest 
of the work, he will experience all the romance of a jungle life, 
there is yet open to him a wealth of possibilities in more 
convenient spots. 

* The Nagas were a Dravidian people who found their way to Ceylon 
before the Aryans arrived. Their chief stronghold appears to have 
been in the north of the Island. 
