571,15 (592) 233 



I. 



On the Discovery of Chipped Flint- flakes in 

 the Pliocene of Burma. 



IN the Records of the Geological Survey of India for 1894 i^'^^- 

 xxvii., pp. 101-103), I published an account of the discovery 

 of some curiously shaped flint -flakes which were found together 

 with vertebrate remains of the Sewalik type, and in particularly 

 close association with a molar of Hippotheviiim antelopiniim. A review 

 of my paper, with figures of the principal flake (here reproduced 

 in Fig. i), was contributed by Professor T. Rupert Jones to 

 Natural Science (vol. v., pp. 345-349, November, 1894). ^ ^^'^ 

 not express any definite opinion as to the origin of these remark- 

 ably shaped flakes, although I thought it rather difficult to imagine 

 any natural process by which flakes of such a shape could be pro- 

 duced. I was well aware that the heating of flints by the sun and 

 their rapidly cooling down during the night might result in the pro- 

 duction of splintery fragments, as had been actually observed by 

 various travellers in deserts, and described by O. Fraas in " Aus dem 

 Orient " (pp. 38, 39), The dry climate of Central Burma, particularly 

 the country around Yenangyoung, with its rapid changes of tempera- 

 ture, ranging from about 52° to 100° in December or the beginning of 

 January, would be well adapted for the disintegration of exposed 

 flints, and if I had found the specimens lying loose on the surface of 

 the rock, I would certainly have attributed their shape to the influence 

 of temperature. As it was, the original specimens were not found 

 lying loose on the ground, but were imbedded in the matrix of a con- 

 glomerate, which in a subsequent paper ^ was referred to as the zone of 

 Hippotherium antelopiniim and Acerotherium perimense. In other words 

 the flakes were in situ when found. 



As I have personally no large experience with regard to stone 

 implements, I left it to authorities in that matter to decide whether 

 the specimens I discovered were of an artificial nature or not. I 

 claim, however, enough experience to be able to say whether a 

 particular fossil was or was not in situ when found. So far, nobody 

 seems to have doubted the story of the find as given in my first paper. 



^ Records Geol. Surv. India., vol. xxviii., p. 84, 1895. 



