﻿Mr. B. Foote on Stone Implements in Southern India. 151 



other parts of the country, where no distinct traces could be seen of 

 the formation from which they had weathered out, and which had a 

 different origin (possibly freshwater) from that of the marine coast- 

 laterite ; while a few have been obtained from unquestionably 

 fluviatile deposits. None have been collected from formations 

 known to be either younger or older than the coast-laterite. 



The author inferred that during the latter part of the laterite- 

 period the land was raised to the extent of 500 or 600 feet, that 

 this elevation was followed by a period of quiescence during which 

 the laterite was extensively denuded, that this epoch was succeeded 

 by a period of depression during which the recent coast-alluvium 

 was formed, and that a subsequent elevation brought the land into 

 its present position. 



The President referred to the evidence of physical geography 

 to prove that the Deccan was once an island, and to ethnological 

 data to prove that the people who made the quartzite implements 

 were probably not the original Aryans, but were the ancestors of 

 the Hill tribes, whose nearest affinities are with the aboriginal Aus- 

 tralians of the present day. He was of opinion that the two popu- 

 lations were once nearly or quite continuous, having been sub- 

 sequently cut into segments by geological changes, and that the 

 makers of the quartzite implements came from the same stock as 

 both these recent tribes, which present the most rudimentary civi- 

 lization known. 



Prof. Rupert Jones called attention to the similarity in the type 

 of these quartzite implements to that of the flint implements of 

 Europe. 



Sir Roderick Murchison doubted whether the laterite was a 

 marine formation, as neither in it nor in the lacustrine deposits 

 alluded to had any organic remains been found. 



M. de Normand stated that Obsidian knives, like Mexican types, 

 were found by him, with domestic implements cut out of volcanic 

 stone, under 70 feet of tuff of the primitive volcano of Santorin ; 

 and he considered that before the formation of the first volcano 

 ceramic pottery was brought to Santorin from foreign shores, 

 and, of course, by sea. 



Dr. Meryon remarked that the occurrence of the same type of 

 implement in Europe and Asia proved a dispersion of the human 

 race in very ancient times, and that man originated from one centre ; 

 while in later times a divergence of type in the worked objects w<x6 

 a result of the dispersion. 



Mr. Prestwich was inclined to believe that greater physical 

 changes had occurred in India since the Pliocene period than in 

 Europe. The implements were so like those of Europe, that their 

 fabricators seemed to have been taught in the same school. 



Mr. Foote, in reply, stated that he regarded the laterite as a 

 marine formation, because it occurred all round the coast. All the 

 implements were quartzite, with perhaps one doubtful exception, 

 which was formed of basalt. Stone circles and kistvaens had been 

 found on the surface of the laterite in some localities. 



