"Serendib:" and the mariners of the Persian Gulf have left a record of their delight in reaching the calm havens of the island, and reposing for months together in valleys, where the waters of the sea were overshadowed by woods, and the gardens were blooming in perennial summer.

*

Adam's bridge and the channels between India and Ceylon, supposed to be a succession of alternate risings and subsidences, are, according to Captain Stewart, ledges of sandstone conglomerate resting on a bank of sand. At Cape Comorin there are no fossils, whereas they abound so in the north of Ceylon, that the Arabs used to say that, when the crustaceans ventured out of their element, they were converted into stone.

Detached hills of great altitude are rare in Ceylon, the most celebrated being that of Mihintala, which overlooks the sacred city of Anarajapoora; and Sigiri is the only example in Ceylon of those solitary acclivities which form so remarkable a feature in the table-land of the Dekkan, starting abruptly from the plain with scarped and perpendicular sides, and which are converted by the Indians into strongholds, accessible only by precipitous pathways, or steps hewn in the solid rock. In the lower ranges of the hills, gigantic portions of gneiss rise conspicuously, so detached from the original chain, and so rounded by the action of the atmosphere, aided by their concentric lamellation, that but for their prodigious dimensions they might be regarded as boulders. What must geologists, who visit the shores of the Bay of Dublin to study the decomposition of crystalline rocks in concentric layers, think of a mass six hundred feet in height, and upwards of three miles in length, at whose foot lies Kornegalle, one of the ancient capitals of the island; and of another, under the hollow edge of which is constructed the great temple of Dambool, the most remarkable Buddhist edifice in Ceylon, its gilded roof being formed by the inverted arch of the natural stone? What amount of time must have elapsed ere these gigantic spheroids have exfoliated into their present shape, when the progress of delamellation is so slow that the Singhalese priests erect their most venerated temples under the shadow of the overarching strata, to the imperishable nature of which they point as symbolical of the eternal endurance of their faith?

Only the other day Mr. Darwin, assuming that salt could not be separated from sea-water by filtration, had to invent an untenable theory to explain the existence of fresh water in the atolls and islands on coral reefs, furnished by wells which ebb and flow with the tides, and which occur also at Jaffna, in Ceylon. Since that it has been shown that porous media do possess the power of removing matters from solution in water (Witt, in Phil. Mag., 1856), and we have thus a very simple explanation of a very singular phenomenon.

Another curious phenomenon, to which the name of Anthelia has been given, is to be seen in great beauty at early morning in Ceylon. When the light is intense, and the shadows proportionally dark-when the sun is near the horizon, and the shadow of a person walking is thrown on the dewy grass-each particle furnishes a double reflexion from its concave and convex surfaces; and to the spectator his own figure, but more particularly the head, appears surrounded by a halo as vivid as if radiated

Reinaud: Relation des Voyages Arabes, &c., dans le Neuvième Siècle, tom. ii. p. 129. Paris, 1845.

from diamonds. Scoresby describes the occurrence of a similar phenomenon in the Arctic Seas, produced there on the fog which rested on calm water. Something similar has also been witnessed in India in the Khasia Hills, and by Vigne in Kashmir. Ramond speaks of a still more striking phenomenon as sometimes to be observed in the Pyrenees-that is, the reflexion of the human body with a halo round it, on the surface of a cloud, placed by mountain elevation on a level with the spectator.

Although the luxuriant vegetation of Ceylon has at all times been the theme of enthusiastic admiration, it appears that the number of indigenous phænogamic plants does not exceed three thousand; when it is considered that this is nearly double the indigenous flora of England, and little under one-thirtieth of the entire number of plants hitherto described over the world, the botanical riches of Ceylon, in proportion to its area, must be regarded as equal to that of any portion of the globe. Although its botanical features may be described as those characteristic of the southern regions of Hindustan and the Dekkan, still Ceylon exhibits more of the Malayan flora and that of the Eastern Archipelago, than any portion of India to the west of it. It has also a considerable number of endemic species, or such as are peculiarly Singhalese.

Speaking of the prevalent habit among these people of betel chewing, Sir J. E. Tennent says:

Never eating flesh meat by any chance, seldom or never using milk, butter, poultry, or eggs, and tasting fish but occasionally (more rarely in the interior of the island), the non-azotised elements abound in every article he consumes, with the exception of the bread-fruit, the gak, and some varieties of beans. In their indolent and feeble stomachs these are liable to degenerate into flatulent and acrid products; but apparently by instinct, the whole population have adopted a simple prophylactic. Every Singhalese carries in his waistcloth an ornamented box of silver or brass, according to his means, enclosing a smaller one, to hold a portion of chirnam (lime, obtained by the calcination of shells), whilst the larger contains the nuts of the areca, and a few fresh leaves of the betel-pepper. As inclination or habit impels, he scrapes down the nut, which abounds in catechu, and, rolling it up with a little of the lime in a betel-leaf, the whole is chewed, and finally swallowed, after provoking an extreme salivation. No medical prescription could be more judiciously compounded to effect the desired object than this practical combination of antacid, the tonic and the carminative.

So true is it that we seldom find, in semi-civilised life, habits universally prevailing which have not their origin, however they may be abused by excess, in some sense of utility. With the exception of the orange, the fruits of Ceylon are, according to Sir James, wanting in that piquancy which, in northern climates, is attributable to the exquisite perfection in which the sweet and aromatic flavours are blended with the acidulous. Either the acid is so ascendant as to be repulsive to the European palate, or the saccharine so preponderates as to render Singhalese fruit cloying and distasteful.

But these defects are surely more than compensated for by the coolness which pervades them; and, under the exhaustion of a blazing sun, no more exquisite physical enjoyment can be imagined than the chill and fragrant flesh of the pine-apple, the cool heart of the water-melon, or the abundant juice of the mango, which, when freshly pulled, feels as cool as iced water. But the fruit must be eaten instantly; even an interval of

a few minutes after it has been gathered is sufficient to destroy the charm. Laying aside the admirable provision of nature, by which this coolness in fruit is ensured in a tropical climate, we cannot but feel assured that a kind Omniscience has, in providing cool acidulous fruits to gratify the parched mouth, and cool saccharine fruit for food where the stomach will bear little more, done that which was best and wisest under the circumstances.

We are indebted to Dr. John Davy for the first effective impulse given to the cultivation of natural science in Ceylon, and so much has been done since, that we have now a Prodomus Faunæ Zeylanica by Dr. Kelaart, and we are soon to have an Enumeratio Plantarum Zeylanica by Mr. Thwaites. It is one of the peculiarities of Sir James Emerson Tennent's work that the author has been enabled to avail himself in all branches of inquiry, not only of all that has been previously published on the subject, but also by contemporaneous labours actually being carried on. This is more particularly evidenced in the different branches of natural history, where, to what has been previously done, as by Kinnis, Blyth, Kelaart, and others, in mammalogy and ornithology; by Davy and Gunther, in ereptology; by Bennett, in ichthyology; by Neitner, in entomology; and what has been the result of his own observations, he has been enabled to add the more recent, and, in most instances, unpublished labours of Dr. Templeton and of Mr. E. L. Layard-the latter having supplied a list of Ceylon birds; of Dr. Gray, who has contributed a more complete catalogue of the reptiles and fish of Ceylon than is to be found in Dr. Kelaart's or Mr. Bennett's published lists; of Mr. Sylvanus Hanley, who has supplied a classified list of shells; and of Mr. Walker, who has prepared a list of insects, after a careful inspection of the collection made by some of the above-mentioned naturalists, as well as those in the British Museum and in the museum of the East India Company. We have lately had occasion to observe how much more frequently Germans are, by their various and sound information, to be utilised as travellers than Englishmen; but when a gentleman of education, as in the instance of Sir J. E. Tennent, uses the advantages of position and power given to him in the civil service of her Majesty to co-ordinate all that has been previously done with his own observations, and again corrects, matures, and completes these by the labours and observations of others, he is doing more for the advance of useful knowledge than could be accomplished by a whole host of mere pioneers and explorers, however zealous or well informed.

Among the curiosities in the natural history of Ceylon monkeys rank first, as the most attractive creatures in the forests, where they career in ceaseless chase among the loftiest trees. In Ceylon there are five species, four of which belong to one group, the wanderoos, and the other is the little, graceful, grimacing rilawa, which is the universal pet and favourite of both natives and Europeans. The Singhalese have the impression that the remains of a monkey are never found in the forest—a belief which they have embodied in the proverb that "he who has seen a white crow, the nest of a paddy bird, a straight cocoa-nut-tree, or a dead monkey, is certain to live for ever." It does not speak well of Singhalese compunction, that the natives are said to capture the loris-the only other quadramanous animal in Ceylon besides monkeys-for the purpose of extracting its

singularly large and intense eyes as charms and love-potions, and that they are said to effect this by holding the little animal to the fire till its eyeballs burst. There is one comfort, that the thing is scarcely probable, if possible.

The elephant is the lord paramount of the Ceylon forests; it is to be met with in every district, on the confines of the woods, in whose depths he finds concealment and shade during the hours when the sun is high, and from which he emerges only at twilight to wend his way towards the rivers and tanks, where he luxuriates till dawn, when he again seeks the retirement of the deep forests. This noble animal fills so dignified a place both in the zoology and economy of Ceylon, and his habits in a state of nature have been the subject of so many misrepresentations, that Sir James devotes no less than six chapters to the description of his structure and his habits, of elephant shooting, an elephant corral, captive elephants, and conduct in captivity. These chapters are replete with interest and information. It would appear that, like monkeys, elephants are removed by the living after death, or they retire to a particular and solitary place to die. The place selected in Ceylon is said to be a valley in Saffragam, among the mountains to the east of Adam's Peak which is reached by a narrow pass, with walls of rock on either side, and there, by the side of a lake of clear water, they take their last repose. "It was not," adds Sir James, "without interest that I afterwards recognised this tradition in the story of Sinbad of the Sea,' who, in his seventh voyage, after conveying the presents of Haroun-al-Raschid to the King of Serendib, is wrecked on his return from Ceylon, and sold as a slave to a master who employs him in shooting elephants for the sake of their ivory, till one day the tree on which he was stationed having been uprooted by one of the herd, he fell senseless to the ground, and the great elephant approaching wound his trunk round him and carried him away, ceasing not to proceed until he had taken him to a place where, his terror having subsided, he found himself amongst the bones of elephants, and knew that this was their burial-place." It is curious to find this legend of Ceylon in what has not inaptly been described as the Arabian Odyssey of Sinbad, the original of which evidently embodies the romantic recitals of the sailors returning from the navigation of the Indian Seas in the middle ages, which were current amongst the Arabs, and are reproduced in various forms throughout the tales of the Arabian Nights.t

Major Rogers bought his successive steps in the army from a subaltern to a major, with the value of the ivory obtained in his various encounters, and had, therefore, an object, however disproportionate, in his slaughter of twelve hundred elephants.

The remarkable excrescence on the beak of that extraordinary bird the hornbill, is made to explain the statement of the Minorite friar Odoric, of Portenan, in Friuli, who travelled in Ceylon in the fourteenth century, and brought suspicion on the veracity of his narrative by asserting that he had there seen "birds with two heads." Pea-fowl abound

* Arabian Nights' Entertainment. Lane's edition, vol. iii. p. 77.

† See a disquisition on the origin of the story of Sinbad, by M. Reinaud, in the introduction prefixed to his translation of the Arabian Geography of Aboulfeda, vol. i. p. lxxvi.

so in some of the less frequented parts of the island, that, regarded as game, it ceases to be sport to destroy them. Myriads of aquatic birds and waders also frequent the lagoons, lakes, and water-courses. Mr. Mitford says that the devil-bird, hitherto supposed to be an owl, is a Podargus, or night-hawk, which has a most appalling shriek. Blue crows domesticate themselves in the close vicinity of every house, and nothing is safe from their depredations. They will open a paper parcel or a basket, and one will attack a dog to draw off his attention whilst another seizes his bone. Parroquets are so numerous, that Mr. Layard describes such vast flights coming to roost in the cocoa-nut-trees which overhang the bazaar at Chilaw, that their noise drowned the Babel of tongues bargaining for the evening provisions.

One of the earliest, if not the first remarkable animal to startle a stranger on arriving in Ceylon, whilst wending his way from Point-deGalle to Colombo, is a huge lizard of from four to five feet in length, the Tallagoya of the Singhalese, and the Monitor Dracena of Linnæus. The flesh is made into curry, the skin into shoes.

The Singhalese have a tradition to the effect that the cobra de capello loses a joint of its tail every time it expends its poison, and eventually acquires a head which resembles that of a toad. This bit of folk-lore is traced to the existence in Ceylon of false snakes (pseudo-typhlops), which are intermediate between lizards and serpents, having the body of the latter and the head of the former. Another tribe, called the Uropeltidæ, or rough-tails, has the further peculiarity that the tail is truncated, as if it had been severed with a knife, and this reptile assists its movements by pressing the flat end to the ground. The Singhalese Buddhists, in their religious abstinence from inflicting death on any creature, are accustomed, after securing a venomous snake, to enclose it in a basket of woven palmleaves, and to set it afloat on a river. Sir James saw snake-stones, which do not appear to be bezoars in Ceylon, applied with apparent success to persons wounded by venomous snakes. The influence of particular plants in charming snakes he, however, discredits, and believes that the reptile is overpowered by the resolute action of the operator, "the confidence inspired by the supposed talisman enabling its possessor to address himself fearlessly to his task, and thus to effect, by determination and will, what is popularly believed to be the result of charms and stupefaction." According to this view of the subject, there is still faith on the part of the animal-magnetiser.

Plenty of edible fish are caught at Ceylon. Among the best is the seir, which eats like salmon. Many are said to be poisonous, as the bonito and unicorn fish; sprats and even sardines, which latter occur in such shoals as to make the water smooth as ice, are also reputed as poisonous at certain seasons. Elian makes mention of fish with feet instead of fins being found in the seas around Ceylon. Sir James suggests that this may be a Chironectes of very singular and highly grotesque aspect. Some of the fishes have a brilliancy of colour that has won for them the wonder and admiration even of the listless natives.

A peculiarity, which leads to a lengthened and interesting discussion, has been observed in Ceylon, where some of the reservoirs and tanks are liable to be evaporated to dryness, till the mud of the bottom is converted into dust, and the clay left by the heat into gaping apertures. Yet, a