May i, 1885,] 



THE TROPICAL A6"RTCtTLTTJRIST. 



863 



CEYLON PLANTING : SEEING THE TEA GROW : 



WITH A GLANCE AT CACAO, CARDAMOMS 



AND OTHKR "NEW PRODUCTS." 



(Continued from page S5G.) 



LAVA 1VIKE CAAOOK AND GNEISS— SULPHUR IN -CEYLON— 

 ORIGIN OF OUR HOT SPRINGS —ABB THERE ANY VOLCANIC 

 TRACES JlN CEYLON ?— CAUSES OF OUR ROCK FORMATION 

 —NO EVIDENCE OF GLACIAL ACTION IN CEYLON— RICH 

 SOIL FROM THE DISINTEGRATION OF ROCKS— TEBRAICNO 



HILL SIDES— RESULTS OF FORKING TEA ESTATES IN THE 



KELANI VALLEY— GRAND FOREST TREES— CHENA AND 

 BAMISOO LAND— LUXURIANT NILU A SIGN OF GOOD SOIL 

 — UNGROUNDED FEARS— A TRYING ASCENT WELL RE- 

 PAID—TEA AND CARDAMOMS ON AVISAWELLA ESTATE 

 — FOREST TREES — EXCESSIVE FOREST RESERVE TO 



BE DEPRFCATED— SUPERSESSION OF WOOD BY IRON. — 

 CARDAMOMS IN AWISAWELLA,MADULKELE AND MATALE 

 — MALABAR AND MYSORE CARDAMOMS — ENORMOUS 

 PROFITS FROM CARDAMOMS ON KANDANUWARA — 

 PREPARATION OF CARDAMOMS— CACAO CURING— BLACK- 

 MAN'S AIR PROPELLER— SILKWORMS— CULTIVATION OF 

 CACAO — RED ANTS AS A CURE FOR HELOPELTIS — 

 SUPPLIES NECESSARY IN DRY LOCALITIES — CACAO ON 

 HILLY AND ON FLAT LAND— BEAUTY OF CACAO ESTATES 

 — ENEMIES OF CACAO— RUBBERS— LIBERIAN COFFEE 

 A FAILURE— CROTON OIL PLANTS— COTTON TREES- 

 TEA— CHANGES IN NAMES. 



I have alluded to lava-like oabook, and pieces can 

 be picked up with exactly the molten-like surface of 

 true lava of rather recent origin. But the power of 

 much-weathered gneiss to imitate old lava rocks is 

 still more striking. I saw many instances in my 

 journeyings, but perhaps none more curious than a 

 series of black crags scattered over a portion of 

 Dunedin tea estate with holes of all shapes and sizes 

 worn through their substance. They reminded me of 

 loose lava rocks, through a tunnel in which the trains 

 from Messina in Sicily to Catania at the foot of 

 Mount Etna have to proceed with extreme slowness 

 for feir of shaking down the roof of the tunnel- 

 Had I been in a volcanic country, I should certainly 

 have ranked the grotesque, dark gneiss masses on 

 Dunedin and some other places as volcanic, but neither 

 of sulphur nor of soda was there a trace. Indeed, I 

 do not know of sulphur anywhere in Ceylon except 

 in the pyrites of the crystalliue limestone of our 

 mountains. Even the hot springs, which are pretty 

 common in Ceylou, probably owe their warmth to 

 masses of decomposing vegetable matter. Sir Emerson 

 Tennent talks of basalt iu Ceylon, and, therefore, I 

 should be very sorry to be dogmatic. All I can say 

 is, that I have walked over the lavas of Vesuvius 

 and those at the foot of Etna, not to speak of Java 

 and Aden, and I have seen the basalts of Australia 

 and Western India, but trace of true volcanic rock 

 in Ceylon I have never yet seen. Gentlemen so iu- 

 telligent as Mr. T. C. Owen ami Mr. M. (J. Thomas 

 assured me, however, that what tliey re'garded as a 

 true volcanic formation existed on Oonoonagalla or on 

 the route theuco to fialheria Unfortunately I was 

 not able to visit, tiie spot, but I am promised speci- 

 mens, on receipt of which I may bo able to judge. 

 What I diel see ou Oonoonagalla, passing in from llatale 

 ami again on the opposite side of the rock over Dotal- 

 oya, was the truly stupendous effect of atmospheric 

 inlluences on gneiss abounding iu felspar and horn- 

 blende. Enormous masses of rock lay scattered about, 

 not rouudeel boulders, but detached fragments of the 

 strata of the parent mountain. A look iu this case 



and others of like nature was sufficient to show that 

 the rock ruins around were duo to no great cataclysm, 

 but to the operation of causes still and constantly 

 at work, pale hued faces of the mountain above, 

 showing where huge lamina' had been ([uitc recently 

 detached. It is curious that so observant a writer 

 as Sir Emerson Tennent should have propounded the 

 theory that the same agency which originally up. 

 heaved our mountain system can be looked to as 

 accounting for the dibris of rock fragments which lie 

 scattered from Bummit to base of many of our hills. 

 Some of our lower hills may possibly, owe their origin 

 to this cause, but I think all the evidence is in 

 favour of the whole mass having been upheaved in- 

 tact, and to an altitude probably a full third greater 

 thau that of our highest mountain, Pielurutalagala, 

 which is 8,296 feet above sea-level. Twice that height 

 would carry our mountains up to the snow-line even 

 in this latitude, but as far as I know there is 

 as little evidence of glacial action as of volcanic in 

 Ceylon. What seems certain is that against the out- 

 side of our mountain system the sea waves once beat, 

 while lakes of collected rain water in situations like 

 Nuwara Eliya at length burst the barriers which con- 

 fined them, engineering their way into the lowcountry 

 through what are now river beds ; while we owe 

 the disintegration of our mountain peaks and their 

 conversion into rounded knolls of rich forest-bearing 

 soil to the agencies of tropical heat and mon- 

 soon moisture still at work, acting on the 

 chemical constituents of the rocks. Magnificent 

 and picturesejue as some of our mountain cliffs 

 are— for instance, the circlet of rocks running from 

 Hantane to Galaha, the spotted rock (" Kabara- 

 gala ") above Nawalapitiya, Etapola and ridges 

 over " the Knuckles," — yet the distinguishing char- 

 acteristics of our mountain system are succeeding 

 series of smooth, rounded knolls covereel either with 

 forest or the cultivation which has displaced " the 

 forest primeval." It is no new thing to say that 

 the richest soil has been found and the most teem- 

 ing crops produced amidst scattered and confused 

 rock and boulders, beneath cliffs, as in the case of 

 Oonoonagalla, where we were not surprized to hear 

 that a ton an acre per annum had been freepiently 

 gathered amidst the labyrinth of rocks through which 

 we had difficulty in winding our way. Besides the 

 rich soil accruing from the decomposition of the 

 rocks, there were the conditions of shelter, warmth 

 and moisture afforded by the huge masses. The 

 splendid coffee-bushes amougst the rocks still exist 

 and still give promise of crop, and will be the last, 

 we may rely on it, to give place even to tea such 

 as we saw ou auother portion of Oonoonagalla, anel 

 which, in thickness of stem, vigour of growth and 

 luxuriance of golden flush, compared favourably with 

 anything we had ever seen, even in the Darjiling 

 terai. Iu Dimbula there is excellent soil with 

 scarcely a sign of detached rock or boulder, the 

 latter having been doubtless weathered and decomposed. 

 In the northern ranges rook fragments of all 

 sizes are the common accompaniments of the finest 

 soil, and when we heard that proprietors of tea 

 estates on low hills in the neighbourhood of Awisa- 

 wella were horrified and disappointed at finding the 

 surface of their laud .-trowed with broken stones, 

 our remark was that the disappointed ones coulel 

 not have visited or heard about some of the very 

 richest because rockiest estates of Haputale ami 

 Eangal 1. To compare the rocks of the Awisawelln 

 estates to those of the Haputale and Matale raDges, 

 would lie to compare great things with small, but 

 the small tilings ean be gradually most beneficially 

 utilized in forming terraces to preserve the surfaco 

 soil. Terracing for this puipuse is a very different 

 thiug to cutting terraces on hill-sides which would 



