1879.] J. Cockburn— Notes on Stone Implements. 141 
however, been largely collected in Europe, and my specimen is a facsimile of 
fig. I, pl. I of Prof. Nilson’s work on the Stone Age, and also closely resem- 
bles an Irish specimen figured in the Catalogue of Antiquities in the Royat 
Irish Academy, p. 94, fig. 75. The Banda specimen is obviously a water- 
worn pebble of a red quartzite, with a tolerably deep hole in one side. It 
seems that water-washed stones were similarly utilized in Europe during 
the stone age, for Mr. Wilde says, in reviewing the Irish collection, that 
“ some of these stones are natural water-washed pebbles, others are evidently 
shaped by art.” Regarding the indentation or hole, which is sometimes 
found on one side only, at others, in precisely similar specimens, on both 
sides, the Editor of the Catalogue is of opinion that it is the first step in 
the formation of a hole, which it was the intention of the maker to carry 
right through, and fig. 76, which yet more closely resembles my specimen in 
size and outline than fig. 75, with a large series in every stage of manufac- 
ture, clearly shows this. There can be very little doubt that these so-called 
tool-stones were used as hammers for cracking small bones, nuts &c. and 
for lighter work generally, during what must have been a protracted process, 
the boring. My Banda specimen bears evident marks of the effects of 
percussion at either end, which it would be difficult to account for otherwise, 
and from the singular convenience of hold it affords when held between the 
finger and thumb, it was probably so held and used. 
Stone Implements from Madras. 
Stone implements of a neolithic type have hitherto been remarkably 
scarce in the Madras Presidency, there being only one recorded instance in 
the Society’s Journal of a polished celt having been found within this area, 
(P. A. S. B., 1868, p. 59.) 
I have since had a series of polished celts from Vellore of quite the 
same type as the Banda celts. 
This collection of polished celts from Vellore is of the greatest impor- 
tance. Mr. V. Ball, in his paper “ On the Forms and Geographical Distribu- 
tion of Stone Implements in India,’ considers the whole of Southern India 
(coloured red in his map,) as productive of palzolithic implements of 
chipped quartzite only. Up to the time Mr. Ball wrote, there had only been 
a single recorded instance of a polished celt having been found within this 
area, (P. A.S. B., 1868.) After his essay had been printed, Mr. Ball examined 
a series of polished celts from the Shevaroy Hills, in the British Museum, 
but he remained inclined to consider this find another instance of an outlier. 
I leave it to the reader to consider whether the accumulated evidence col- 
lected now is not quite strong enough to seriously affect Mr. Ball’s theory. 
The series of ten now exhibited were found on a low rude sort 
of stone table, under a tamarind tree, neara Mallayam temple, in the 
