On the occurrence of Stone Implements in lateritic forma- 

 tions in various parts of the Madras and North A r cot 

 Districts. By R. Bruce Foote, Geological Survey of 

 India. 



fl \HE discovery that certain of the more recent formations 

 in Southern India contain Stone Implements of un- 

 doubtedly human manufacture and of the same type pre- 

 cisely as the flint weapons now creating so much interest in 

 various parts of Europe, cannot fail to excite some attention 

 among Students of Geology, Ethnology and Archaeology. 

 With the exception of a brief verbal notice of the discovery 

 of these Implements made to the Bengal Asiatic Society at 

 their general meeting in December last by Dr. Oldham, the 

 Superintendent of the Geological Survey of India, no ac- 

 count of them has yet been made public(l). 



Excepting a doubtful fragment of a Stone Implement found 

 by Mr. Theobald of the Geological Survey of India in the 

 Gangetic alluvium near the mouth of the Soane, no traces 

 of chipped Stone Implements had previously been discovered 

 in India. 



Until the discovery of these evidences of the existence 

 of man during or prior to the formation of these deposits, 

 nothing more was known of their geological age than that 

 some formations supposed to be identical with them rested 

 unconformably on the cretaceous rocks of the Trichinopoly 

 and South Arcot Districts and were themselves overlaid by 

 the alluvium of the Cauvery, Vellaur and Punniaur rivers, 



The discovery however of articles of indubitably human 

 manufacture at once fixes the position of these formations 

 very nearly at the highest point of the geological scale by 



(1.) Note.— See Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal, No, CCXCIIL 

 1864, p. 67. 



