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THE TROPICAL AGRICOLTORIST;. 



[Aug; 2, M64 



.BK£» 



fine as if engraved, showing the j)rovinces, towns, 

 roads, railways, heights of mountains, mean temper- 

 ature, area, population, average rahifall per annum, 

 but also, in a border most artistically designed and 

 drawn, has placed sixty medallions of the animals 

 and birds of Ceylon. The best of our Sixth Stand- 

 ard Board Schoolers, after this, may take the 

 rearmost of back seats. In centre, model of Double 

 Canoe, with palm-lea icovered deck house. Other 

 models shown on ca,ses and elsewhere are the canoes 

 with outriggers, safe and swift, carts, bullock carts, 

 a padda boat for cargo, and a pearl-fishing ballam 

 (or yawl), with crews, divers, and all equipments. 

 The two principal exhibits come next. On the one 

 side, ebony furniture— admirably carved sofas, chairs, 

 cabinets, and tables, with large tusks mounted on 

 stands as sentinels, and a screen of ebony wood with 

 exquisite embroideries of flowers on black cloth. 

 On the other to the left, about the prettiest and 

 most effective furniture in the Colinderies — a book 

 case, five cabinets — three large and two small — chairs 

 in Calamander-wood, the grain a picture in itself. 

 These flanked by sentinel tusks. These have been 

 lent by Mr. C. H. dc Soysa. J. P., to whom the 

 Court IS much indebted for contributions, from ar- 

 rack to gems, and hunting trophies to jewellery. 

 Indeed, tusks are in evidence on every side. The 

 method of capturing; wild elephants is shown in two 

 models of kraals, with the hunters, the tame or decoy 

 elephants, the wild ones, the palm trees, all carved 

 in ebony. In one is also given a Kandyan chief 

 entertainng a party; whilst a Sinhalese Strauss and 

 his band, discourse music, mostly on tom-toms. 



An extensive display of lace from Galle, riotta, 

 and Negombo, including the loan collection of Miss 

 A. E. Ferguson, is set in large cases on each side 

 of the Court. There are cases of arms— jewelled, 

 gold, silver, and bronze— Sinhalese swords and dag- 

 gers, daggers mounted in silver and gold, with uncut 

 rubies and other precious stones, gold filagree work 

 from Jaffna, gold plate set lent by Mr. C. H. de 

 Soysa, elephant-teetn boxes set in gold, and in ebony 

 coconut writing desk with a tree in silver, and 

 other nnmeroMS ohiects oibrick-a-biac( lie. Then four 

 Dagobas, two silver, one gilt, and a large one of 

 brass, models of those standing, aad now the only 

 remains, save the ruins, of a Buddhist Temple (where 

 was the collar bone of Buddha in a dish), and the 

 Sacred Bu tree of the chosen capital of King Panduk- 

 abhaya, the capital for twelve centuries, Anuradha- 

 pura, founded 437 b.c, and said to have been 2r30 

 square miles within the walls. The group of two 

 leopards, representing the death of Kanger, a hound 

 —the assassin having been killed by mere pluck, 

 with a knife, by Mr. Beauchamp Downall— sur- 

 rounded and set out by Elephant Trophies, big 

 bones, skulls, tusks, tushes, pads, tails and saw-fish 

 swords, lent by many, including Mr. A. N. Birch, 

 C.SI.C+., Messrs. C. H. de Soysa, Fanshawe and 

 Swyney, will attract attention, artistically grouped 

 by Mr. Rowland Ward. The case of shells of the 

 Tamblegam Lake oyster Placuna Placenta, from 

 Trincomalee, showing the almost transparent semi- 

 lucid shell with prismatic colours like a bubble, 

 and the pearl oyster in its various stages, from the 

 baby of three, six, and nine months of age to the 

 adult of five and a half years, and the chank shells, 

 not unlike our whelks, used for cutting into rings, 

 with the fine gauges for size, are both interesting. 

 The fishing canoe has a quaint stone anchor vvith 

 hole bored through it, shaped like an old-fashioned 

 weight used by divers to lower themselves quickly. 

 Facing this is a case of jewellery, which should 

 prove, and is, one of the magnets of the show. 

 Here is a moonstone belt, a girdle of light, the ./Wo- 

 eimi'le of the silver casket which holds the sacred 

 tooth of Buddha at Kandy. The view of the Temple 

 is on the walls of the Entrance Hall, and the 

 porch of teak, with its carved pillars and plafond 

 in nine panels, the stone balustrade or low wall, 

 both within and by the Ceylon Tea House, are all 

 faithful representations of divers portions of the 

 Dalada Maligawa, the Temple of the Sacred Tooth. 

 lu this case, beside tL<^ mooustouc belt arc the 



gold collar, with its lion (not elephant) emblems, 

 and gold belt with jewelled medal of office of Diwa 

 Nilame, who may be seen outside the Court in 

 the warriest of war paint and the most gorgeous 

 of hats, in company with a gentleman that looks, 

 with his blue gold-laced tunic and gold shoulder- 

 belt and rather incongruous silk Juron, like an ad- 

 miral in petticoats. An " ola " box of carced silver 

 for the sacred writings in "Pali" on palm leaves 

 a silver box to hold a book, rude coral necklaces 

 with gold beads, contrasting strangely with necklaces 

 of pearls, fitted for an Empress, a Tsarina, or our 

 loved Princess, the Hose of Denmark. The three 

 cases of gold and silver ware and jewellery will 

 well repay an hour's detail. The elephant's foot 

 pads, used as flower vases, with Latania Borbonicas, 

 look well : but the cases of precious stones, though 

 they will welcome the coming, will not speed the 

 parting guest. Here will be found the marriage 

 stone — ruby and sapphire, blue and yellow sapphire, 

 combined in one stone ; white sapphires, tourmalines, 

 chrysoberyl, chalcedony, jargoons, spinels (these latter 

 very effective and cheap), amethysts, cat's eyes, 

 moonstones, star stones, topaz, hyacynths, aqua- 

 marines, rubies, zircons, dalam, a sand blended of 

 chrysoberyls, sapphires, and rubies, alexandrite (green 

 by day and red by night), ruby crystals and sapphire 

 matrixes, and crystals of corundum or sapphire, are 

 an Aladdin's Cave of jewels. But with a glance at 

 Miss North's paintings, the model of the Break- 

 water at Colombo, the plumbago carvings and the 

 use made of plumbago by Morgan Brothers in their 

 famous crucibles, the skin of the scaly anteater, we 

 leave, and so, as Buddha himself greeted us at the 

 entrance, a yellow-garbed Buddhist priest bows us 

 out of the Ceylon Court — by the Sal tree beneath 

 which Buddha, prince, priest, and prophet, breathed 

 his last — which owes so much to the taste and liber- 

 ality of its Commissioner, Mr. A. N. Birch, c.Ji.o. 



Te.a. at 4|d per lb. — What wiseacre was that who 

 spoke of throwing away tea which sold at this 

 rate in public sale? Why throw away "4Jd" 

 or bury it in the earth? Times are too hard for 

 that ; as the tea had to be made, the 4^d per lb. 

 is so much to the good. Fine plucking— in some 

 places very fine — and sifting, can give us 

 Is 3d, Is 6d, Is 9d and even 2s for select parcels ; 

 but it is quite possible that the estate getting 

 4^d for its worst may pay its proprietor better 

 taking quantity and prices all round. — Com. ■ 



Tea Cultuee in Ceylon.— The London Fidd of June 

 5th has the following notice of Mr. Hamilton's pam- 

 phlet — ainotice which cannot fail to do good by attrach- 

 ing increased attention to our new and great industry: — 

 " The Ceylon Tea Industry, an Opening for Men of 

 Moderate Capital, by John Hamilton (late of Cey- 

 lon), London, Skipper and East. This little pam- 

 phlet, contains in a condensed form, a great deal 

 of useful information with respect to an industry 

 that is at the present time being successfully car- 

 ried on in Ceylon, and which bids fair to restore 

 the island to the prosperity that existed previous to 

 the failure of coflee through disease, and the con- 

 sequent depression, which culminated in the crash 

 of the Oriental Bank. The author, in turn, deals 

 with the most material facts connected with tea 

 cultivation in Ceylon— such as the tenure of pro- 

 perty, means of communication, labour supply and 

 the suitability of the soil. He argues that the dis- 

 ease which has proved so destructive to the colfee- 

 plant is never likely to injure the tea leaf, which, 

 from the difference in its structure would be able 

 to resist its attacks. After giving the prices per 

 acre at which lands can be purchased at the present 

 time, he recommends Ceylon as affording a good 

 opening for younger sons possessed with a small 

 capital, and concludes with some very sensible 

 remarks on tbc future market for Ceylon tea." 



