1875.] Whirlwind in the Maimansingh District. 103 



their due comparison and determination — and where an admirable series of 

 ' palaeolithic' and ' neolithic' implements has already been brought together. 



" The antiquity, however, of these implements is probably very incon- 

 siderable, and the probability is great, that other objects of cotemporaneous 

 industry will be found in the same layer whence these were extracted, if 

 diligent search be made." 



Mr. Ball said— ' . 



" For comparison with the perforated stones now exhibited I have 

 brought to the meeting the highly finished hammer-stone which was de- 

 scribed and figured by me in the Proceedings for April 1871. I have also 

 brought a volume of the American Naturalist for 1873 in which, since my 

 paper was published, I have found descriptions and figures of perforated 

 stones which are said to occur in great abundance on both banks of the 

 Susquehanna river near the small town of Muncy in Lycoming country, 

 Pennsylvania. The resemblance between these hammer- stones and mine 

 from Mopani is very striking, with this exception, however, that the 

 hollows on the opposite faces of the pebbles were not generally carried suffi- 

 ciently deep to meet, and so cause an actual perforation. This is, however, 

 the case with some of the European implements. 



I quite agree with Mr. Rau, the writer of the paper, that these stones 

 were not suited to the manufacture of flint flakes, as has been suggested 

 by some authorities. 



To those who believe in an Asiatic origin for the North American 

 Indians, the fact I have pointed out may, perhaps, be not without interest. 



The perforated stones exhibited by Mr. Locke, and which I see now for 

 the first time, are of too soft material to have been used as hammer-stones. 

 Whatever may be their supposed antiquity, the use they can have been 

 put to, is I should think, extremely doubtful. 



2. From the Assistant Secretary to the Government of Bengal for- 

 warding the following correspondence with a report by Mr. H. J. H. 

 Fasson on a Whirlwind which occurred in the Maimansingh District on the 

 2Gth March, 1875. 



No. 77, dated Dacca, the 22nd April, 1S75. 

 Memo, by F. W. Peacock, Esq., Officiating Commissioner, Dacca Division. 



Copy, with the. enclosure in original, submitted to the Government of 

 Bengal, Judicial Department, for information. This storm, which occurred 

 exactly one week after the one reported in my memorandum No. 60, dated 

 30th ultimo, was not so destructive, though its violence would appear to 

 have been greater. 



