120 _ “PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 1905 
India. Here, to quote Mr Bruce Foote,! one of our best 
archzologists in India, “the geological evidence afforded 
by the formations in which the chipped stone-implements 
of palzolithic type are found indicates—especially in the 
sections in western India—that a great gap, historically 
speaking, exists between the date of deposition of such 
formations and of the beds in which, or on which, the 
earliest traces of neolithic man are met with. The geolo- 
gical evidence in Southern India, though less strikingly 
clear, points in the same direction.” 
How far this distinction rests on a difference of race we 
are unable to say. We have, so far as is known at present, 
no record of a palzolithic interment in India, and the 
evidence to be gained from a comparison of skull forms is 
therefore wanting. But as attention is now concentrated 
on the subject, it may be hoped that materials for settling 
the question will be obtained. 
It must, however, be said that while in Europe attempts 
have been made to identify objects of human handiwork in 
the rocks of the Miocene period, the Indian geologists 
seem to agree that the palezoliths are found in the Pliocene 
series.” If this be so, the existence of early man in India 
lasted through a considerably shorter period of time than 
some authorities have claimed for him in Europe. The 
probability seems to be that the palzolithic race in India, 
separated by a wide gap from the neolithic, was different 
in origin. How far any remains of it may be recognised 
in the present population it is impossible, in the existing 
state of our knowledge, to determine. 
On the other hand, the geological evidence discloses the 
existence of no gap in time between the neolithic people 
and their successors, who gradually acquired a knowledge 
of the use of metals. And, though the overlap of the two 
stages of culture has not, so far as we know at present, 
1 “Catalogue Madras Museum,” Intro., p. iv. 
2 Windle, Of. cit., p. 2; Bruce Foote, Of. cit., Intro., p. viii. 
