Appendix, 



41 



when as far as we know the only material used was quartzite even af; 

 long distances from any place where quart zite occurs in the required, 

 form, the people must have been in many cases compelled to resort to 

 places where material was procurable. Here then, each would probably 

 make his own weapon on the spot in preference to carrying away a few 

 suitable stones— in which case there would in time be a large collection, 

 of finished, unfinished and broken weapons lyirjg about the neighbour- 

 hood besides a great quantity of chips — or, as I am inclined to suppose, 

 the people of the place (if it happened to be a settlement) manufactured 

 weapons for the others. -Supposing too, and there is some reason for 

 this supposition, that some of the places where stone was abundant were 

 islands, the inhabitants Would have an incentive to prepare articles for 

 barter, in so far as they might be supplied with articles of great value to 

 them which were only procurable on the mainland. This coincidence of 

 the abundance of implements and of the raw material for their manufac- 

 ture certainly occurs in the districts we have named, for we found that, 

 the suitable material (shingle and rounded debris of quart zite) occurs 

 close by these localities in large quantity, while it is not so easily pro- 

 curable in adjacent parts of the country. These are, however, the pre- 

 sent condition of the country regarding it as an area of dry land. There 

 is good reason nevertheless, to argue that its aspect must have been very 

 different either when the implements were in use or subsequently : for, 

 as has already been shown by Mr. Foote, the stone weapons were found 

 regularly deposited at different depths in the alluvial lateritic drift (1). 

 Hence, it may be assumed that so much of the country as is covered by 

 these apparently younger lateritic formations was under water at the time 

 of their deposition. It cannot, however, be definitely ascertained that 

 the country was thus partially submerged at the time of the manufacture 

 and use of the worked stones, though this was probably the case ; the 

 very fact that most of our specimens which were not buried in the allu- 

 vium were found on the higher grounds is somewhat in favor of the 

 contemporanity of the period of manufacture and such an aspect of 

 country. 



The Kirkumbady area is very interesting in this way, for the wide 

 valley of the Soornamookey, in which it is situated, must from the great 

 extent of its alluvial deposits have been an area more or less covered with 

 Water and probably not unlike the present swampy and lagoon region of 

 Pulicat and the coast area further north : except t hat it was enclosed 

 by the fine ranges of the Tripetty, Calastry, and Naggrum Hills. Along 

 the shores of this partially submerged valley, and here and there even, 

 towards the middle were low sand banks and rounded rocky islands. The 

 elevated ground of Kirkumbady Fort was one of these larger islands, 

 and upon it there was a large quantity of material fit to be made into 

 stone, implements, abundant refuse of which we have found on the highest, 

 parts of the ground and in the neighbourhood. 



Much of the Soornamookey valley was already geologically surveyed 

 before I became acquainted with the appearance and mode of occurrence 

 of these ancient evidences of man's existence, so that many bits of rising 

 ground on the south side where we might expect to find remains of this 

 kind, were passed over (as far as looking for weapons was concerned) 



(1) Note. — No implements have been met with in the much younger 

 true fluviatile alluvium with which the " alluvial lateritic drift" must not 

 be confounded — K. B, P. 



