1868.] rOOTE INDIAN STONE IMPLEMENT;*. 489 



August 1866. Hero also there are abundant evidences that the 

 latcrite extended far inland, in some parts even close up to the base 

 of the mountains. The lateritic debris is found largely scattered over 

 the country ; and with it occur implements. 



It has been already mentioned that no chipped quartzite imple- 

 ments have been found south of the Palar river, although laterite 

 occurs there and far to the south. I am hopeful, however, that the 

 implements will be traced still further south ; but, doubtless, they 

 will be found much more rarely the further we go from the sources 

 of supply of quartzite. The laterite of Pondicherry and the patches 

 further south have not been specially searched for implements, as 

 they were surveyed several years before the discovery of the chipped 

 weapons in India. 



Assuming these lateritic formations along the Coromandel coast 

 to be of truly marine origin, the question arises, To what depth below 

 its present level was the land depressed ? This question can only 

 be solved by ascertaining the highest levels at which the lateritic 

 deposits are found to occur. The highest elevation of the imple- 

 ment-bearing beds which has been accurately measured, is 370 feet 

 above mean sea-level at Madras ; this is at Kircumbaddy, on the 

 north side of the Soornamookey valley. I am indebted for this 

 measurement to Mr. W. E. Robinson, C. E., of the Madras Railway, 

 a gentleman who took great interest in the discovery of the stone 

 implements, and himself made a large collection of them from this 

 locality. 



The next highest measured elevation is that of the lateritic debris 

 occurring on the elevated ground near the Arconum railway junc- 

 tion, which attains a height of upwards of 300 feet above the sea- 

 level. 



During my last visit to the Alicoor hills, in August 1865, I found 

 several implements lying on the much-weathered surface of the 

 laterite, a considerable distance up the slope of the hiUs N.N.W. of 

 Naikenpolliam, at an elevation which I believe considerably exceeds 

 that of the foregoing cases. Unfortunately I had no instruments 

 with me at the time to make an exact measurement, so had to con- 

 tent myself with an estimate of the elevation, for which, however, 

 the circumstances were very favourable. 



At a distance of 3 miles from where I found the implements is a 

 station of the great Trigonometrical Survey of India, marked in the 

 map as the Nemilly hill, which has an elevation of 367 feet above 

 sea-level. This NemiUy hill is perfectly overlooked from the spot at 

 which I obtained the implements in question, which must, therefore, 

 be at a considerably greater elevation, and probably lies between 

 500 and 600 feet above sea-level. 



That the implements here found were really derived from the un- 

 derlying lateritic conglomerate I have no doubt, as they were 

 deeply stained of a purplish-brown colour, which characterizes the 



but completed by Messrs. Charles A. Oldham and William King previously to 

 the discovery of the chipped implements near Madras in 1863. 



