894 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



types, save some so-called hammers, have been found in Sind or 

 Beluehistan. 



Be> t gax aot) Oeissa. 



"With but veiy few and unimportant exceptions, the whole of the 

 recorded implements which have, as yet, been discovered in the Bengal 

 Presidency — by which I mean the region under the jurisdiction of 

 the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal — are now before the Academy. 

 They were all either picked up on the surface by myself, or obtained 

 by me direct from the persons into whose hands they passed after 

 their discovery. Though the collection is so small, it is, in a 

 remarkable degree, representative of types at one time considered to 

 be characteristic of the forms of implements belonging to various 

 widely separated regions in India and adjoining countries. 



The chipped quartzite and vein quartz implements, figured in 

 Plate 14, are from 5lanbhum, in Chutia Sagpur, the Baniganj coal-field, 

 in the district of Bardwan, and from Talchir, Denkenal, and Ungul, 

 in Orissa. On comparison with a series of ITadras implements, the 

 resemblance to some of the forms is very striking, and the conclusion 

 that a connexion existed between the peoples who manufactured these 

 implements, respectively, seems a legitimate one to draw. JSTot only is 

 there a resemblance in form, but also in material, and in some in- 

 stances at least, in the case of the Bengal specimens, they were 

 picked up at localities far remote from the nearest possible source of 

 origin, thus necessitating some human means of transport. At the 

 same time, with these rudely-formed implements there is a less 

 clearly defined degree of character than is to be found in some of the 

 more carefully fashioned implements to be presently described. 



In one district of Bengal only have traces of the flakes and cores been 

 met with, which are found so abundantly in some of the more western 

 regions of India. This district is Singbbhum, where Captain Beching 

 and myself discovered them. Not only did these in themselves, from 

 their forms and nature, indicate a human origin ; but I was in some 

 cases able to trace the probable source of the materials of which 

 they had been formed ; and in these cases, as with the chipped 

 quartzites, human transport was absolutely necessary to account for 

 their position. See Pigs. 14 and 15, in Plate 15. 



I have already described how those implements which are the 

 work of human agency may be distinguished, by the evidence of 

 laboriously executed design, from naturally fractured fragments of 

 stone. I am quite prepared to find, however, that some persons 

 unaccustomed to this kind of inquiry, may very possibly decline to 

 accept my argument as conclusive ; but even such can scarcely refuse 

 to admit that the polished celts — Pigs. 8 to 12 in Plate 15 — are of 

 human origin. 



The first of these (Pig. 8) was found by me at Buradih, near the 

 borders of the Singhbhum and Lohardugga districts. It is made of 

 an argillaceous slaty rock, and was possibly, though having the form 



