154 Royal Irish Academy. 



"The Fort Hill and ISorfh Hill are close together; the Peacock 

 Hill is part of a small group of hUls about five miles east of Port 

 Hill. For purposes of classification they maybe treated as ' Bellary.' 

 There is no apparent distinction between the settlements ; in aR three, 

 the ashes and platforms for houses among the rocks and the character 

 of relics are identical. These hills are of granitic gneiss. But the 

 Peacock Hill is remarkable because in it crops out a huge dyke of 

 coarse diorite, presenting a mass of broken blocks and small cliffs, on 

 many of whose flat surfaces occur yarious figures, whose existence 

 was brought to notice by Mr. F. Fawcett in a paper read before the 

 Oriental Congress of 1891. 



" Though the figures do not seem to have been known to Europeans, 

 the neolithic settlements have been known for years, and stone tools 

 have been collected in great quantities. "When I went to Bellary 

 these sites had been well searched ; but preyious collectors had 

 contented themselves with finely-finished and polished tools. Notic- 

 ing the ashes and house-sites, and the abundance of rough tools, it 

 occurred to me that these rough tools were the household tools, the 

 tools of eveiyday life in neolithic villages. I therefore collected 

 rough as well as fine tools. Of the latter comparatively few re- 

 mained ; of the foimer I found quantities. It was very evident that 

 for eveiyday use very roughly chipped stones answered. But they 

 ^11 approximate more or less to the types of finished instruments. 



" The collections of Mr. P. B. Foote and Mr. H. Gompertz show 

 that the polished tools were much the same in variety and shape as 

 those of Europe, with the exception of the great perforated axes and 

 great hammers of Eiu'ope. Perforated tools are vere rare. I found 

 ■only one, which I gave to Mr. Foote. 



•'H. T. Kxox, 



"Beechen, Ltis^dhu:rst, 



" ISth January, 1894." 



A special vote of thanks was passed to Mr. EJiox for this donation. 



The Secretaiy exhibited, for P. Clarke, Esq., a large Stone Celt 



and a Ball of Dark Coral Limestone found near Portaferry, Co. Down. 



Pead Pecommendation from Council, that the invitation of the 



