Cromlechs or Cairns on some bané or grass lands about a mile to the west of the town of Veerajpett in South Coorg. The discovery was made by my Assistant, Lieutenant J. S. F. Mackenzie, in January last, in the following manner :-A quantity of stones was required for certain bridges and other works in Veerajenderpett, and one of the native merchants offered to get the stones if Mr. Mackenzie would allow him to remove them from the bané in question. Mr. Mackenzie inspected the locality and found the remains of a great number of Cromlechs, the stones of which had evidently been split up and removed at different periods by the Wuddars, a tribe of stone-hewers. The bané in question is much grown over with low brush wood; and on pushing further on, Mr. Mackenzie hit upon a fine large double Cromlech. On communicating this most interesting archæological discovery to me, I at once forbad the removal of any more stones from the locality, and directed the shrubwood and earth around the Cromlech to be removed, so as to lay bare the whole structure to its base.

Lieutenant W. Freeth, the Assistant Superintendent of the Revenue Survey, then kindly undertook to make drawings and plans of this double Cromlech and of two others, and I have now the pleasure of forwarding, for submission to His Excellency the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, three colored drawings of these Cromlechs, as also 20 copies of plans of the same lithographed at the Merkara Sudder Jail Press from drawings by Mr. Freeth.

The double Cromlech, (Plate 2,) is formed by six large (unhewn) stones, surmounted by one large flat stone, 13 feet long, by 9 feet 9 inches broad, and about 7 or 8 inches thick. This top stone had been apparently not long ago chiselled and split open right across the centre from each side, so as to form four blocks, but most fortunately had not been removed, except a small piece at the back and to the left, looking at the Cromlechs. The back is also formed by one large slab, as also each side. The front slabs are smaller and divided by the large centre slab, which forms the enclosure into two compartments. These front stones have each a peculiar aperture of an irregular segmental form, about 1 foot 11 inches by 1 foot 8 inches, at the top and immediately below the superincumbent stone. The stones at these apertures are sharp on the inside, and present a bevilled appearance *We have given a reduced copy of the most important of these. ED.

outside. The inner rim is so sharp as to lead to the conclusion that these apertures could not have been used for ingress and egress. The

centre stone projects to the front 2 feet 8 inches, and the top flag projects over the left compartment to such an extent as to afford shelter like a verandah. This was doubtless accidental, but it is a curious fact that this shelter is so afforded on the side, away from exposure to the monsoons which now prevail. The interior measurements of the compartments are also given in the plans by which it will be seen that each compartment was about 7 feet long, 3 feet 9 inches broad, and 4 feet high. Each compartment was flagged by a large stone in each. These compartments were nearly full of earth, but nothing was found in them. Dr. Shortt of Madras, who has opened many cairns on the Nilgiris and other parts of the Madras Presidency, informed me that he had never seen or heard of a double Cromlech of this description. This would add to the value of the present discovery.

There is also a single Cromlech similarly constructed of large unhewn and uncemented slabs of granite. It is 6 feet 8 inches long, by 4 feet broad, and 4 feet high, interior measurement. The top stone had been broken and partly removed, and the stem of a very old tree was found growing out of it; nothing was found in this either. A third one is a still smaller Cromlech found on another bané about 1 mile from the others. On this bané are to be found many large tumuli, which apparently contain many of these Cromlechs. The front stone of this small Cromlech was just visible at the end of one of these tumuli, and I caused the earth above and around it to be cleared away, and the top stone was raised and made to slip over on one side. It was full of earth in which we found pieces of earthen pots and small pieces of charcoal.

At the end of another tumulus, another Cromlech was dug out, but we found the top stone had been removed, apparently very many years ago. In this also were found fragments of earthen vessels and pieces of charcoal, and also a small piece of a bangle. This bangle is much thicker than those in use in the present day, and the devices on it are in pale yellow and somewhat similar in form to those generally to be found on the modern imitation Etruscan vases, goglets, &c. I showed this bangle to all the native merchants at Veerajpett, who

declared that they had never seen one of such a description before. This bangle and fragments of earthen vessels were sent in to the Commissioner, and are now in the museum at Bangalore, but I would beg to suggest that they should be sent on to the Government with this report. The bangle is evidently of no modern date; but as the top stone of this Cromlech had been removed, and Wuddars had evidently been at work in the locality during the past 50 to 100 years, it is possible that the bangle had once belonged to some dusky beauty of that tribe. It was found also only about a foot and a half below the surface of the mound and just within the stone cist.

I have failed to discover any of those concentric rows of upright stones which have generally been found with such Cromlechs in cairns elsewhere, but the fact of the Wuddars having been so long at work in these localities would account for the disappearance of these stones which were probably first discovered and removed. It is worthy of note that these structures all face east and west. Very few of these Cromlechs would appear to have had the segmental apertures found in the double Cromlech, and in fact most of those now visible are much smaller and would appear to be more like those short stone cists containing cinerary urns, which have generally been found in the sepulchral mounds both in Asia and in Europe, and even in Central America. As remarked before by me, these banés abound with such tumuli, some of which have evidently not been touched. It is in such alone that we may expect to find still more interesting relics of this almost unknown past period of the history of the world and of our species, and I would earnestly request permission to push on these excavations. Some of these tumuli would appear to run parallel with each other, so that, when uncovered, these stone chambers would present the appearance of streets. The discovery of pieces of charcoal and fragments of apparently cinerary urns, would tend to show that the conclusions drawn by modern archæologists were correct, viz. that these stone chambers were only used as sepulchral monuments. But my assistant, Mr. Mackenzie, has suggested that it is an extraordinary fact that, when such durable and lasting monuments to the dead are to be found, no remains of the dwellings of these ancient Dravidian races are visible in the same localities so as to throw still greater light on the ethnical records of the past. Is it possible that these larger