190 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 
brought with them, and that this much better material was taken 
over by the Veddas in a relatively short time. 
We, furthermore, may already venture to say that the second 
main period of the Stone Age, the Neolithic one, viz., that character- 
ized by the polished stone axe, is entirely wanting in the Island of 
Ceylon, the Veddas having made the step directly from the older 
Stone Age into the modern Age of Iron, which was brought them, 
as remarked above, by the Sinhalese, or perhaps by another people 
of the Indian Continent. 
; F. and P. SARASIN. 
Kandy, April 19, 1907. 
14. Further Note on Vedda Implements.—A number of pieces 
of chert, quartz, &c., were recently brought to the Museum as 
mineral specimens for examination and determination by one M. 
Palis Perera, who collected the majority of them in the district 
between Badulla and Batticaloa. 
A large number of the specimens proved to be fragments of 
common rocks and minerals of no special interest, but others were 
obviously paleolithic implements or showed some signs of human 
workmanship; and on questioning Perera he stated that he 
collected them during the recent expedition of the Drs. Sarasin to 
the Vedda district, when he was employed as shikari. 
Out of a total of over 108 packets of specimens, only about 
eighteen appear to be undoubted human implements, being of 
more or less recognized shape and showing work on the edges; 
eleven of these are of red, brown, or light-coloured chert with 
dull surface ; two consist of transparent quartz; and five of pieces 
of the red brown chert with bright surface and good conchoidal 
fracture, known in Sinhalese as gonapitta or ginigala, being the 
material formerly used for gun flints. There is no example of green 
chert among these, though some very doubtful specimens are 
composed of this material. The green chert is markedly softer than 
the other vasieties. 
Some of the specimens were found in a Vedda cave at Nilgada, 
in which case the presumption that they have human association 
is considerably strengthened in the case of otherwise doubtful 
examples. 
The implements are small and badly fashioned, suggesting 
rather eoliths than paleoliths, certainly not paleoliths of the 
Magdalenien type to which the Drs. Sarasin refer their examples. 
The specimens may be described as spear heads, arrow heads, 
scrapers, and one borer, the latter closely resembling the eoliths 
figured by Professor Sir E. Ray Lankester in his recent book entitled 
‘‘The Kingdom of Man ”’ (London, 1907). 
July 8, 1907. JAMES PARSONS. 
