24 Mr. R. Bruce Foote on the occurrence of 



Of the Flora and Fauna of these islands, and the main- 

 land, no remains have as yet been discovered, a few frag- 

 ments of fossil wood excepted which will probably prove to 

 belong to the same species as the fossil trees of Tiruvak- 

 karei near Pondicherry(l). 



We have therefore no indications of the climate then 

 prevailing nor any means of further correlating the relative 

 age of the lateritic formations. 



The numerical distribution of Implements, over a great 

 part of the area (2) in which they occur, appears to have 

 depended less on the distance from the mainland and islands 

 of the period than upon the direction of the currents or 

 whatever else may have been the distributing agency. This 

 agency, whatever it may have been, would appear to have 

 acted chiefly in an easterly direction from the flanks of the 

 Alicoor and Sattavedu hills, for the lateritic deposits lying 

 South-westward, Southward and South-eastward of those 

 hills contain far fewer Implements than those lying to the 

 East of the hills in question which doubtless formed a group 

 of three or four rather large islands in the laterite deposit- 

 ing waters (3). 



That very many of the Implements if not the majority 

 owe their present positions in the lateritic deposits to the 

 moving power of water is amply proved by their showing 

 marks of attrition, which in some few cases had been con- 

 tinued so long as nearly to obliterate the drippings and so 

 almost to re-convert them into water-worn pebbles. Other 



(1) Note. — These have been described and figured by Professors 

 Schleiden and Schmidt under the name of Peuce Schmidiana in their 

 work on Silicified Wood (Uberdie Naturiider Kiesel Holzer.) 



(2) Note. — The Implement bearing laterite formations which I have 

 personally examined and which alone are here referred to lie between the 

 Palar river on the South and a line drawn from Naggery, through the vil- 

 lage of Sattavedu, to the Pulicat lake on the North. 



(3) Note. — The laterite deposits lying Westward of the Alicoor hills 

 are mere debris of the probably extensive formations which have been 

 removed by denudation, 



