Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Ixv. (192 1), No. 13 25 



sity of civilisation is not peculiar to Britain. All the world 

 over there have been successions of civilisations markedlv 

 different in nature, each showing- by their distribution of 

 population the presence of distinct needs. These civilisa- 

 tions, many of them vanished, have often left behind them 

 remains. A study of the distribution of these remains will 

 give us an idea as to the motives of their authors. In this 

 way, by a comparison of results obtained in all parts of the 

 world, it should be possible to help to build up a stable theory 

 of civilisation.* 



* Since this paper was read before the Society I have found that the late 

 Mr. Bruce Foote, formerly Superintendent of the Indian Geological Survey, 

 had already come to much the same conclusions as myself with regard to the 

 relationship between early human settlements and certain geological formations. 



He says : — 



" A consideration of the map of prehistoric localities (published by him 

 in his work on Indian prehistoric and protohistoric Antiquities) .... shows 

 that the several peoples concerned were widely distributed over the country, 

 excepting in the mountain and great forest regions of the west of the 

 peninsula, in which, so far as my knowledge goes, no traces have been found 

 of the paleolithic race or races. The localization of all the races has also been 

 influenced in some measure by the distribution of the rocks yielding materials 

 suitable for their respective implements. Thus, there are far more numerous 

 traces of the paleolithic race around the great qnartzite yielding groups of 

 hills forming the Cuddapah series of the Indian geologists and the great 

 quartzite shingle conglomerates of the Upper Gondwana system in the 

 Chingleput (Madras), North Arcot and Nellore districts, than in other regions. 

 In diminishing quantities traces of paleolithic man are found to the north- 

 ward of Kistna valley, where, quartzite becomes a much less common rock. 

 So also to the southward of the Palar valley, where quartzite becomes a rare 

 material ; to the westward on the Deccan plateau, where the stone chippers. 

 finding no quartzite in the Bellary district, had recourse to the banded jasper 

 haematite rocks (of the Bharwar system) ; and further north in the valley of 

 the Kistna, where recourse was had in one instance to hard siliceous limestone. 



" The extreme rarity of trap dykes in the south of the peninsula may 

 have been a vera causa of the rarity of neolithic remains in the regions south 

 of the Cauvery, while it is certain that in the northern parts of the Deccan 

 plateau, where neolithic remains must abound, dykes of basalt, diorite and 

 diabasic traps are very plentifully distributed. This has reference to their 

 war implements, as their axes are, as a rule, almost without a single exception, 

 made of the trappoid rocks, and specially of the finer grained varieties of 

 these." (Op. cit., 36.) 



It is thus evident that the writer of these words was far on the way to 

 enunciating the thesis of this paper. He had recognized that the controlling 

 factor in the distribution of palaeolithic and neolithic man in India was the 

 presence or absence of raw materials. 



The late Mr. Vincent Ball, also of the Indian Geological Survey, in a 

 paper " On the Mode of Occurrence and Distribution of Gold in India " 

 (Journal Boy. Geol. Soc. Ireland. 1880). makes some significant remarks when 

 discussing native gold-washing in India. He states that the native gold 

 washers have tended to concentrate themselves in the richest parts of the 

 gold-producing areas (259-60). " In a part of Western Bengal I found that 

 generations of washers had demarcated limits within which washing was 



