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JULY, 1906.]
PYGMY FLINTS.
187
"Lying along with the small implements in the undisturbed soil of the cave-floors, pieces "of a heavy red mineral colouring matter called gárd were frequently found, rubbed down on "one or more facets, as if for making paint this gérú being evidently a partially decomposed "hæmatite [iron peroxide].
"On the uneven sides or walls and roofs of many of the caves or rock-shelters there "were rock-paintings, apparently of various ages, though all evidently of great age, "done in the red colour called gérú. Some of these rude paintings appeared to illustrate in "a very stiff and archaic manner scenes in the life of the ancient stone-chippers; others represent "animals or hunts of animals by men with bows and arrows, spears, and hatchets.
"With regard to the probable age of these stone implements I may mention that I never "found even a single ground or polished implement, not a single ground ring-stone or hammer-stone in the soil of the floors of any of the many caves or rock-shelters I examined.
"I have found some fragments of very rude pottery, sometimes much worn, "buried in some, or a few only, of the caves, particularly near their entrance. But "one single cave, in particular, was entirely filled with pottery and ashes and nothing "else."
"Of the small implements, I may state that of crescent-shaped ones alone (without "counting any of the other forms), twelve hundred were found in two caves and two rock-shelters; and of these, five hundred were found in one cave only. Altogether "about four thousand of various sorts, including implements, flakes, and cores, were obtained "from these caves.
"I also excavated several prehistoric tumuli, or grave-mounds, in the valleys of the "Vindhya. range. In these mounds I found whole skeletons, but in such a friable condition that "not a single entire bone could be got out. I also discovered rude earthenware vessels and "fragments of pottery in the same mounds along with small stone implements and numerous "flakes. Among the smaller stone implements found in the mounds there were "several of exactly the same peculiar forms and types as those found in the caves, "leading to the conclusion that the men buried in the mounds were of the same race as the men of the caves. In six different mounds which I excavated I did not find a single bit of metal " of any kind."
The best locality in England for minute implements, exactly the same as those of the Vindhyas, except that they are even smaller, is Sounthorpe in Lincolnshire, which has been closely investigated by the Rev. Mr. Gatty. He described his researches in Man' for February 1902, and the following account of his discoveries is abstracted from that article and his correspondence with me.
The neighbourhood of Scunthorpe is level for the most part, but a ridge of hills rises abruptly from the plain, and extends to Lincoln for a distance of thirty miles. The 'pygmy flints are found in both the hills and plains, at isolated sites, of which seven are known. The whole district seems to have been covered with sand, which sometimes attains a depth of twenty feet and has a stratified appearance ascribable to the action of wind. The drifted sand forms mounds, occasionally as much as ten feet high, but usually much less. The pygmy flints are found on the floors of these mounds, in wind-blown depressions of irregular and shifting shape, which vary in dimensions, ranging from a length of twenty-four feet with a width of twelve feet up to a square of fifty feet. Mr. Gatty has obtained considerably more than 200 pygmies' from one of these depressions, which, in his opinion, mark the sites of habitations or workshops.
Although Mr. Carlleyle does not say so expressly, this pottery evidently was hand-made, not turned on a wheel.
