38 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [Jan. 



India, lias not been to some extent a student of these tribes,) — must 

 feel largely indebted to Mr. Hunter. We look forward with great 

 interest to the promised comparative grammar of these tongues, 

 and trust the author may be enabled to carry out his intentions 

 satisfactorily and quickly. 



From the study of the races still existing in the less frequented 

 districts of this country, or of which the last dying embers are still 

 smouldering on the hill sides, the transition is easy to those Pakeo- 

 ethnologic enquiries which bear on that question of surpassing interest, 

 the antiquity of man. I have recently published in the Records of 

 the Geological Survey of India careful drawings of the agate flake 

 or knife, found in the deposits of the upper Glodavery, of the discovery 

 of which I made the first announcement to this Society in 1865 (Dec.) 

 and then briefly alluded to this great importance of the discovery. 

 During the year, various additions have been made to our knowledge 

 of the limits of area, over which these records of the stone age have 

 been found. I would ask those who are interested in this investigation 

 to compare the series which Dr. J. Anderson has brought back 

 from China. And we have had the gratification of making known 

 also the first instance of the occurrence in India of evidence of the 

 use by early races of copper in the manufacture of implements of the 

 same general character, as mark the use of this metal in other 

 countries also. Some of these implements procured by Mr. Bassett 

 Colvin near Mynpoorie have been proved to be of pure copper. But, 

 as is generally the case in such enquiries, the announcement of this 

 discovery (supposed to be unique) has led to the knowledge that others 

 have been found elsewhere also. And possibly we shall before long 

 have abundant evidence that, in India, as elsewhere, a certain law of 

 successive development in the use and manufacture of metals has 

 obtained. The very remarkable and very interesting discoveries in 

 Coorg, of which your proceedings contain the record, and of which 

 further details have since been received, cannot fail to prove of high 

 interest, and to excite to similar research elsewhere. These, how- 

 ever, come down to a time, when we tread on the verge of historic 

 records. I would more eagerly seek for the co-operation of many 

 through the country in the search for proof of the existence of man 

 in earlier times. And I would venture to give here, a very brief and 



