Ball — On Ancient Stone Implements in India. 389 



that there is an absence of evidence of any laboriously worked-out de- 

 sign, and that, in point of fact, these objects are probably of purely 

 natural origin, and that their resemblance to the artificial forms is 

 merely accidental. It is far different with the objects figured in 

 Plate 14, and notably so with Figure 'No. 3. In this one especially, 

 and in the others in a less degree, a central plane, with a cutting edge 

 all round, has been produced by a succession of fractures according to 

 a systematic design, and hence they may, I think, with perfect confi- 

 dence, be asserted to be of artificial origin. 



In the second- group or class of stone implements, of which I ex- 

 hibit some specimens and illustrations, viz., that which includes the 

 cores and flakes of flint, chert, and agate, the same principle of evidence 

 of design may likewise be applied, and where the cores, as in examples 

 which have been figured from Sind and Jabalpur,* display a symmetri- 

 cal arrangement of the fractures, no doubt can exist of their artificial 

 origin, though we may indeed be somewhat at a loss to explain the 

 methods employed in their production. Where the flakes have been 

 trimmed into the shape of knives and arrow-heads the artificial origin 

 is likewise apparent, but some of the ruder flakes may have been the 

 result of natural fracture. Such an one from Singhbhum is also ex- 

 hibited. 



In the following pages I propose to take up in succession the 

 several geographical regions into which India may most conveniently 

 be divided, and to describe briefly the characteristics of the imple- 

 ments whose discovery has been recorded from them respectively. I 

 shall then treat of the methods by which they were manufactured, 

 and the purposes for which they were probably employed, and I shall 

 conclude with some general remarks on the geographical distribution 

 of the different forms of implements, and the probable history of the 

 races who manufactured them. 



I leave it to others more conversant with the forms and distribu- 

 tion of implements, in countries other than those included in India, to 

 point analogies, and to test my conclusions, by applying them to a 

 more extended sphere. 



Madras. 



My colleague, Mr. Poote, has made the subject of the stone imple- 

 ments of the Madras Presidency so particularly his own, and has pub- 

 lished such full accounts of his researches and conclusions, that I 

 almost hesitate to attempt here to give a resume of them, lest it should 

 happen that I should omit any points of importance. 



But since it is necessary for the main argument of this Paper that 

 it should contain a sketch of the discoveries of implements which have 

 been made in each of the great geographical divisions of the Indian 

 Empire, I am compelled to offer the following brief account of the 



* Vide references in Table. 

 3£2 



