1888.] V. Ball — Ancient Stone implements in India. 193 



whole object having been to give a comprehensive review of all that had 

 been published on the subject, any omission of recorded finds was ac- 

 cidental. I was well acquainted with all Mr. Foote's principal papers, 

 and if I was unaware of what he describes as his ' various references ' 

 to neolithic implements and his letter to the Geological Magazine, I can 

 only regret that he omitted to state his facts, when he had the oppor- 

 tunity of doing so, in a more distinct, not to say accessible, form. 



The charge against me of not having known of these ' various re- 

 ferences ' and letter come strangely from a gentleman who confesses 

 (p. 263) that my paper was unknown to him* for more than six years 

 after its publication, although, with the exception of an earlier edition of 

 it published in the Proceedings in 1867, it is, I believe, the only paper 

 which deals with the subject of the distribution of stone implements in 

 India as a whole, and it has been referred to by various writers in Europe, 

 India and America. 



My attempt to group the facts and construct a map based upon all 

 the information both published and unpublished, which was known to 

 me at the time, had, I venture to think, certain strong arguments in its 

 favour, although subsequent discoveries were sure to necessitate a mo- 

 dification of the boundaries as then indicated. 



Such colonies of ' Neolothic ' workers as those, of which the traces 

 have been recently described by Mr. Foote, may very well have been 

 offshoots from the many areas of distribution, and while by no means 

 anxious to urge my theory in opposition to well authenticated facts, 

 nor to press its survival if it should be proved that it ought to give 

 place to another, still as regards India generally I fail to see thau Mr. 

 Foote offers anything in exchange for it. It is indeed, I think, to be 

 regretted that his long devotion to the subject and the great opportuni- 

 ties he has enjoyed have not been more productive of conclusive gene- 

 ralisations as to the relations between the different classes of imple- 

 ments. 



If Mr. Foote had been as well acquainted with the general literature 

 of the subject as might reasonably be expected, he could hardly have 

 claimed (p. 277) for the " discovery of the Paloeolithic quartzite im- 

 plements of Palavaran and the Attrampakkam nullah," that it *' really 

 started prehistoric research in this country." 



It is surely both a narrow and a novel use of a term to limit 

 * prehistoric research ' to the discovery of stone implements and the in- 

 ferences to be derived therefrom. I fancy there must have been Ar- 

 chaeologists in India who before that period believed they were engaged 

 in prehistoric research, though they may have known nothing what- 

 * A copy w^s sent to Mr, Foote but must hare gone astray in the post. 



