Miscellaneous. 155 



Poote, of the Geological Survey of India, near Madras. These 

 were all of the ruder forms, so well known as characterizing the 

 flint implements which have excited so much attention within the last 

 few years in Europe. They were all formed of dense semivitreous 

 quartzite — a rock which occurred in immense abundance in districts 

 close to where these implements had been found, and which formed 

 a very good substitute for the flints of north Europe. This was the 

 first instance in which, so far as he knew, such stone implements had 

 been found in India in situ. True celts, of a totally diff'erent type 

 and much higher finish, and in every respect identical with those 

 found in Scotland and Ireland, had been met with in large numbers 

 in Central India, but never actually imbedded in any deposits. They 

 were invariably found under holy trees or in sacred places, and were 

 objects of reverence and worship to the people, who could give no 

 information as to the source from which they had been originally 

 gathered together. A single and very doubtful fragment of a stone 

 implement had been found by Mr. W. Theobald, jun., in examining 

 the deposits of the Gangetic plains near the Soane river. This oc- 

 curred in the Kunkurry clay of that district ; but, with this excep^^ 

 tion, he was not aware of any stone implements of any kind having 

 previously been noticed in situ anywhere in India. Those now on 

 the table luui been collected partly by himself, from a ferruginous 

 lateritic gravel-bed, which extended irregularly over a very large 

 area west of Madras. In places this was at least 15 feet below the 

 surface, cut through by streams, and in one such place, from which 

 some of the specimens on the table were procured, there stood an 

 old ruined pagoda on the surface, evidencing that, at least at the 

 time of its construction, that surface was a |>ermanent one. This 

 bed of gravel was in many places exposed on the surface, and had 

 been partially denuded ; and it was in such localities, where theM 

 implements had been washed out of the bed, and lay strewed on the 

 surface, that they were found most plentifully. 



Mr. Oldham remarked on the great interest attaching to such 

 a discovery, and on the probable age of the deposit in which they 

 occurred. Another point of interest connected with the history of 

 such implements was the remarkable fact that while, scattered in 

 abundance over the districts where they occurred, were noble re- 

 mains of what would by many be called Druidical character-circles 

 of large standing stones, cromlechs, kistvaens, oflen of large size 

 and well preserved, all of which were traditionally referred to the 

 Karumbors, a raee of which there still existed traces in the hills, 

 still all the weapons and implements of every kind found in thcM 

 stone structures were invariably of iron. No information whatever 

 regarding these stone implements could be obtained from the pea- 

 santry, who had been quite unaware of their existence. — Journ. of 

 the Atiatie Society of Bengal, No. I. (1864). 



On the Present State of MalacologiccU Nomenclature. 

 By Philip P. Carpenter, B.A., Ph.D. 

 At a time when the British Association are about to revise their 



