1822.] Dr. Davy's Travels in Ceylon. 69 



seminated is collected and carried in baskets to an adjoin- 

 ing stream, where it is well washed ; the lighter particles are 

 got rid of by a rotary motion given to the basket in the opera- 

 tion ; and the residue, still wet, is transferred to shallow baskets 

 for careful examination. 



' Ores of Iron and Ma?iga}iese, it has been observed, are the 

 only ores that have yet been discovered in Ceylon. With the 

 mode of reducing the former, and of working the iron which 

 they extract, the natives are well acquainted. Their process of 

 smelting iron, like most of their other processes, is remarkabl^J 

 for its simplicity. The most complete Singalese smelting-hous6 

 that 1 ever visited consisted of two small furnaces under a 

 thatched shed. 



Salts. — The saline productions of Ceylon are far from nume- 

 rous. The only salts, the existence of which I have ascertained 

 in a satisfactory manner, are the following ; viz. nitre, nitrate of 

 lime, sulphate of magnesia, alum, and common salt. These 

 salts, with the exception of common salt, have been found 

 hitherto in the interior only, and in certain caves, where, not 

 being hable to be washed away by the heavy tropical rains, they 

 admit of being detected. 



Nitre and nitrate of lime are of frequent occurrence. Judging 

 from four nitre caves that I have visited, and from the specimens 

 of rocks of several more that I have examined, I believe that 

 they are all very similar ; and that the rock in which they occur, 

 in every instance, contains at least felspar and carbonate of lime, 

 from the decomposition of the former of which, the alkaline base 

 of the salt is generally derived, and by the peculiar influence of 

 the latter (yet not at all understood) on the oxygen and azote of 

 the atmosphere, the acid principle is generated. 



Nih'e Cave of Memoora. — The first view of the place was 

 exceedingly striking. A large cave appeared in a perpendicular 

 face of rock about 300 feet high crowned with forest, at the 

 base of which was a stage or platform of rubbish, that seemed in 

 danger of sliding into a deep wooded valley, closed in by moun- 

 tains of considerable elevation, and remarkable boldness. The 

 cave was 200 feet deep, and at its mouth, which was nearly 

 semicircular, about 80 feet high, and 100 wide. Its floor was 

 rocky and steep, rapidly ascending inward, and its extremity 

 was narrow and dark. To facihtate the ascent, ladders were 

 placed in the most difficult situations. The nature of the rock 

 of which the walls of the cave are formed,* has already been 

 described. The workmen whom I found at their labours, 16 in 

 number, were the rudest set of artificers I ever witnessed ; their 

 bodies almost naked were soiled with dirt, and their bushy 

 beards and hair were matted and powdered with brown dust. 

 When I arrived, they were occupied, not in the cave, but on thfe 

 platform before it, attending to the operations that were then 

 going on in the open air, of filtration, evaporation, and crystal- 



