VOL. XV. (3) PYGMY FLINTS 215 
PYGMY FLINTS 
BY 
VINCENT A. SMITH, M.A., 1.C.S. (Retd)* 
(PLATE IX) 
(Read January 9th, 1906.) 
The convenient name of “‘ Pygmy Flints” has been given 
to a series of extremely minute stone implements of 
peculiar forms, discovered first in India, and subsequently 
in Egypt and Europe. The term must be understood as 
being merely descriptive of the small size of the objects, 
and not as meaning that they are the work of a race of 
pygmies. 
These minute implements were first noticed by the late 
Mr A. C. Carlleyle, of the Archzological Survey of India, 
at a place called Sohagi Ghat, on the northern scarp of the 
Vindhya Mountains, about thirty miles from Allahabad, in 
the cold season of 1867-8. Subsequent researches in the 
years 1880 and 1881 by the same explorer brought to light 
vast numbers of the “ pygmies” in caves and rock-shelters, 
in the “ Vindhyan Sandstone” of the Vindhya and Kaimtr 
ranges. Mr Carlleyle never published his discoveries, but 
after his death, some of his notes and collections came 
into the hands of the late M. Seidler, Curator of the 
Museum at Nantes. A copy of his notes has been com- 
municated to me by the Rev. A. Gatty, of Hooton Roberts, 
*[ Abstract of a paper read at a meeting of the Cotteswold Naturalists’ Field Club 
held at Gloucester on the gth January, 1906. The complete essay, dealing in detail with 
the Indian side of the subject, will appear in the /xdian Antiquary, Bombay, during 
1906. This abstract is concerned more particularly with the English phenomena, | 
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