194 R. Bruce Foote — BemarJcs on Mr. BalVs Note. [Nov. 



ever about stone implements, so that Mr. Foote's assumption seems on 

 this ground alone to be hardly justified. But as regards the question 

 of priority, with reference to the observation and discovery of stone 

 implements in India, it is one which it is perhaps impossible to decide. 

 As early as the year 1845 Capt. Abbott* described certain agate 

 splinters which were found on the banks of the river Narbada, under 

 circumstances which we can now recognise as indicating a probably 

 human origin for them. Again in 1847 flint flakes found in the Circar 

 Warungulf attracted attention, but as I have no means of referring to 

 this latter case, I cannot say whether a human origin was suggested 

 for them. 



In reference to ' Neolithic ' (^. e., polished) implements, the first 

 recorded discoveries in India were by Mr, H. P. Le Mesurier in Bandel- 

 khand in the year 1861, and by Mr. Theobald in 1862, and to them 

 therefore due priority should undoubtedly be accorded. 



As to the style of Mr. Foote's comments, it being so purely a matter 

 of taste, I have nothing to say, being quite content to leave it to the 

 judgment of readers of his paper. During the long period from 1867, 

 when my paper first appeared, to 1887 when Mr. Foote's paper was 

 published, there was more than time for correction of any omission 

 which existed in the former. None had been made, however, in 1878, 

 when I went to press wdth a second edition, and when the Manual of 

 the Geology of India was printed, these discoveries of Mr. Foote's were 

 unknown to others as well as to myself. I am therefore led to the conclu 

 sion that the chief offender in the matter was Mr. Foote himself, but at 

 the same time I must add that had these particular finds been well- 

 known and fully considered, they would not have very materially affect- 

 ed my conclusions as to the general features of the then ascertained 

 geographical distribution of ancient stone implements in India. 

 Dublin, Yours, &c. 



24^/i July, 1888. V. Ball. 



From R. Bruce Foote, Esq., m reply to the foregoing. 

 Memarlcs on Mr. V. Ball's note. 



Through the courtesy of the Natural History Secretary I am 

 enabled to reply to a note by Mr. Val. Ball, F. R. S. on my " Notes on 

 some Recent Neolithic and Palaeolithic Finds in South India," read 

 before the Society on the 3rd August, 1887. I am glad of this oppor- 

 tunity, as Mr. Ball accuses me of having charged him with unfairness 

 in failing to give me full credit for my discoveries, in his paper '' On 



* J. A. S. B. XIV, p. 756. 



t Madras Jour, of Lit. and Sc. Vol. XV, p. 223. 



