58 



JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XXI. 



Government, while to it belongs the credit of suggesting the 

 Colombo Museum and Archaeological Survey. Government is 

 kind enough to make a grant of Rs. 500 a year, but our worthy 

 Secretaries do not see how they are to meet all the calls made upon 

 them unless this sum is increased to Rs. 1,500. With His Excel- 

 lency and the Colonial Secretary present it will not do to press this 

 request ; but I would like to just illustrate how our poverty affects 

 us. We had an interesting application in January last from the 

 Government Agent, Central Province, Mr. J. P. Lewis, a Vice- 

 President of the Society, for a small sum to be devoted to the 

 erection of one or two stones, or pillars, marking historical spots, 

 such as where Robert Knox and his fellow-prisoners resided some 

 230 years ago in the neighbourhood of Kandy. We were very 

 sympathetic as a Council, and felt Mr. Lewis ought to be supported ; 

 but unfortunately the state of our funds would not permit our 

 doing justice to our feelings, and the appeal had to be declined. 

 Fortunately in this case the generosity of some nine or ten 

 colonists, when applied to, brought in the amount required by 

 Mr. Lewis. But it is a fact that the Council and Officers would 

 feel relieved if the Society's purse were strengthened, and this is 

 a hint to the intelligent public, and especially the Public Service, 

 to give us more Members, as much as to the Government. 



6. Mr. P. Freudenberg said : Before I read Dr. Moszkowski's 

 Paper on the Veddas, allow me to introduce him to you. He was a 

 member of the Selenka Expedition that passed through Ceylon 

 a year ago, bound for Java to scrutinize the correctness of Dr. 

 Derbois's assertion that he had found the Pithekantropos, the 

 missing link. In parenthesis, be it said that the result was not 

 favourable to Dr. Derbois, and that the missing link is still 

 missing. When Dr. M. arrived in Ceylon, the Drs. Sarasin were 

 in the Island to study the remaining traces of the lithic age of the 

 Veddas. They arranged for his meeting the tribe he describes. 

 Before Dr. M. left he promised, as a return for the courtesy he 

 had received at the hands of the authorities at Badulla, to write 

 a short Paper on his visit for the Society, and two months ago, 

 when passing through homeward bound, he redeemed his pledge. 



