OCCASIONAL NOTES. 



DISCOVERY OF A STONE IMPLEMENT IN 

 SINGAPORE, 



A short time ago, Lieutenant A. D. Cox, while walking 

 on a road at the barracks at Tanglin, picked up from among 

 the laterite which was being put on the road a large stone 

 implement, which he has presented to the Museum. The wea- 

 pon is five inches in length and nearly four inches across 

 and about one and a half thick in the thickest part. It is 

 oblong, with one end abruptly truncate, the other ground off to 

 a rounded cutting edge. It is a good deal worn, and at one 

 spot bears a small coral, showing that it had recently come 

 from the sea. It is of a dark chocolate-brown externally, but by 

 dipping it a little at one corner it was found to be com- 

 posed of a very hard compact granite containing very small 

 flakes of mica. On enquiry I found that the contractor who 

 was laying down the laterite had obtained it from Tanjong 

 Karang on the West Coast of Singapore. This spot I have 

 since visited, and found that the stone was being taken from 

 below high water mark, which would account for the presence 

 of the coral upon the specimen. Tanjong Karang is a small 

 promontory, consisting of a core of rather hard iron-stone, 

 covered with about two feet of humus and gravelly soil. There 

 is what is called a Kramat at the corner nearest to the spot 

 whence the specimen must have come, but this Kramat merely 

 consists of a detached block of iron-stone, which in shape more 

 or less resembles a tomb. The overlying soil on the promon- 

 tory has so shifted from denudation that it is impossible to get 

 any idea of its age ; fragments of modern pottery occurring 

 even at the part where it rests on the iron-stone. I sought 

 carefully for any more weapons, but could find none, and in- 

 deed it was hardly to be expected, as they are almost always 

 found singly here. 



