1887.] PalceoUtUc Finds in South India. 26j 



ing year, 1864. This find (a ring-stone) was noticed in my paper on the 

 Palaeolithic implements published in the Madras Journal of Literature, 

 and is now in the Indian Museum. Not very long after, I found a good 

 celt near the Arconum junction of the Madras Railway, which was also 

 recorded in the same paper. 



In 1865, it became known that celts of diverse shapes and sizes and 

 in large numbers were to be seen in little shrines, or stuck up on end 

 round the foot of sacred trees, close to many of the temples on the 

 Shevaroy hills in Salem District. Considerable numbers of these were 

 procured, and some found their way into the British Museum, but, so 

 far as I know, nothing was published about them. In the same year, 

 I found a small, but very well made, celt about eleven miles south of 

 Nellore. 



A solitary celt was reported as found on a hill near Mercara in 

 Coorg, and the find, which was communicated to this Society in 1868 by 

 Mr. H. A. Mangles, has repeatedly been quoted by various writers, Mr. 

 W. T. Blanford, Mr. Y. Ball, and Mr. John Cockburn amongst them, as 

 the first made in South India, my Arconum celt being ignored, though 

 published in 1865. 



§ 3. The next Neolithic discovery in the south was made by the 

 late Mr. William Eraser, M. I. C. E., about 1872, when he was District 

 Engineer of Bellary. I first heard of his discovery from himself towards 

 the end of that year. He had found numerous celts and chisels in various 

 stages of manufacture and use, together with corn-crushers and mealing- 

 stones, and much broken antique pottery on two hills, the North Hill at 

 Bellary and the Peacock Hill five miles to the north-east. Mr. Eraser very 

 kindly took me to both hills, and afforded me the pleasure of finding 

 some specimens for myself, to which he added a few more from his own 

 small but choice collection. 



On taking leave of him, I urged him strongly to communicate his 

 discovery to some scientific society, which he promised to do, but un- 

 fortunately never did. He died suddenly a few months later, and his 

 collection of celts was lost, probably thrown away in ignorance of its value. 

 It included some good celts and several remarkably good specimens of 

 the long narrow chisel type, a form which, so far as I know, has not 

 yet been found in other parts of India. 



On my way from Bellary to Gadak, I passed a notable conical 

 mound of slaggy cinders which stands in the middle of a small pass, 

 the Budi Kanama, across a line of hills about sixteen miles west of Bel- 

 lary, and has been described several times by various writers many years 

 ago, among them by no less excellent an observer than the late Captain 

 Newbold. It has been held to be of volcanic origin, and the natives 



