NOTES. 143 



may be of interest to describe the nature of the same, and the 

 ground where the fragments were obtained. 



I received information that there was a cave in a precipitous mass 

 of rocks below the trigonometrical station at Urumutta, and that 

 there was an inscription on the rock itself. I accordingly visited the 

 spot with Lieut. Lindstroom, and after some very difficult climbing 

 we at length reached the mouth of the cave itself. It is situated 

 anaong a mass of rocks both above and below it, and faces the 

 south. 



In section , taken vertically , it is shaped Uke the letter F. The wall, 

 or back of the F, is nearly vertical for 20 feet, and the " roof " is 

 nearly horizontal, projecting about 14 feet. 



The cave may be said to form two parts, one to the east and the 

 other to the west, divided by a fallen mass of stone. The western 

 section had an inscription in the old characters such as I have found 

 at Nuwaragalla and elsewhere. It is cut into the wall of the " F " 

 about 18 feet from the ground. I copied it, but owing to my not 

 having a ladder to get close to the lettering, I defer sending the 

 copy to you till I am more satisfied than I am at present with the 

 figure, as I took it. One or two of the letters appear in my copy to 

 be incomplete. 



My attention was next drawn to the floor of the cave, which, in 

 consideration of the enormously rough and broken character of its 

 surroundings, appeared to me to be artificially flat. I found on 

 sweeping away a mass of fallen leaves that had been blown in from 

 some trees immediately above and round the cave's mouth, that 

 the floor appeared to be of mud. On scraping the surface (in the 

 eastern section) with a twig, I discovered the quartz fragments, that 

 I venture to believe are arrowheads. Nearly side by side with these 

 I found the pottery, and less than a yard away were the bones. 



I would draw special attention to the fragment I have marked 

 " A," which you will observe is enormously hard, and shows a 

 coppery tinge when scraped with a knife. It is, moreover, very light 

 in weight. It was lying among the fragments of quartz. 



I venture to believe the quartz objects are paleolithic, and I draw 

 my deductions from the fact that they are of a stone not found 

 within miles of this cave. Secondly, they indicate in outline a 

 generally definite arrowhead shape. They bear traces of being 

 chipped into shape, and particularly in one instance, where the 

 natural line of fracture is opposed to the edge formed. 



All the objects — " arrowheads," pottery, and bone — were dug 

 up within an area less than a yard square, and within a few inches of 

 the surface of the " floor." ' 



Among the " arrowheads " I found the small nodular piece of 

 red material, which may or maj?- not have been a colouring pigment, 

 for by damping it it Avill make a dull red mark on paper. 



The pottery is, I think, unquestionable. 



