40 



Appendix, 



At the finding of these last, my friend Mr. W. Robinson, of tlie Madras 

 Kailway, was with me, so that he had an opportunity of seeing how the 

 chipped stones generally occurred. Since this, he has not only found many 

 ab>ut the same place, but also numbers immediately in the neighbourhood 

 of his bungalow at. the fort, ; so many indeed, that he was able to send me 

 about thirty very good specimens which are nowinthe Geological Museum 

 in Ca cutta. S >me of these were found among the ballast diggings near 

 the fort, but there is not sufficient evidence from the workmen to show 

 how the implements were exactly situated. 



It must not, however, be supposed that the specimens have been found 

 by the workmen in that, part of the ballast which is decomposed granite 

 in situ ; rather that they have been found in the superficial gravel or 

 drift covering the rising ground whence the Rail-mad material is obtained. 

 Within my own observation the diggings have been very much extended 

 superficially, the granite being only decomposed to a moderate depth ; so 

 that, it, was doubtless from the superficial gravel freshly opened up that 

 the weapons were extracted. 



The finding of such large numbers of implements in the Attrampakkara 

 and Kirkumbady (Loc. 4) areas, as also to a smaller extent in the, Narna- 

 vai am region (Loc. 3), while only isolated specimens have been collect d in 

 other places has caused some little speculation as to the reason for such 

 assemblages of artificially worked stones ; the main idea being that 

 they were collected in these places by the a3tion of currents, or that the 

 localities were sites of manufacture. In the case of the Narnavaram 

 region 'Loc. 3), there may possibly have been some current action in order 

 to bring about the arrangement of the weapons, &c, round the hummocks 

 of gneiss ; but the number of worked stones in so small an area is in favor 

 of its having been a place of manufacture. More observation will however 

 be required before anything satisfactory can be said about the place. 



In the other two great localities (At, tramp tkkam and Kirkumbady) there 

 does not seem to be any system of distribution of the weapons over the 

 ground; at least we did not observe any. There must of course have been 

 some drifting but it would be very local, and we could hardly expect to find 

 implements drifted on to the higher grounds in such numbers as we have 

 found them. The Kirkumbady area is about the most elevated low- 

 ground in the Sooruam >okey valley. It is also sometimes easy to dis- 

 tinguish stones which have been drifted when found in situ, from the way 

 in which they occur : for instance, when found together in layers of gravel 

 in the alluvial deposits, or when they are found in the bottoms of river 

 gullies in cases of two or three or even five specimens which have evi- 

 dently fallen down with the clay and gravel forming the sides of the gully; 

 whereas, in the localities which we suppose to have been places of manu- 

 facture, the specimens are found scattered here and there in num- 

 bers among the rounded quartzite debris over open and elevated ground 

 'without any apparent arrangement in groups or lines. 



One of the great reasons adduced against the idea of sites of manufacture 

 is that, people in such a low state of civilization, as the workers of these 

 rude weapons must have been, had not arrived at the idea of manufacturing 

 certain commodities in one place for purposes of barter with other tribes. 

 In fact, that each tribe, or family made its own commodities ; or, for ex- 

 ample, if a man wanted a stone weapon he looked about for a suitable stone 

 and made the -weapon then and there. 



This would, of course, be the ordinary mode of procedure where 

 material was always at hand or where it was only procurable in small quan- 

 tities at chance places ; but, in this age of Stone Implements in S. India, 



