ibARCH I, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



G5I 



tea, just planted. Closely ailjoiuing Kehehvultie, 

 anil on the same side of the road are two estates 

 which have been opened within the past five years, 

 and are almost entirely under cinchona. A few trees 

 of CeanV rubber, planted throughout the tields im- 

 mediately adjoining the road, show a rate of growth 

 which would be satisfactory, did the return, even 

 in depreciated rupees, correspond to it. You will 

 by this time have reached Yapame store, where in 

 the palmy days of long ago, large stores of all 

 sorts of eatables and drinkables were wont to ac- 

 cumulate, pending their removal by coolies to their 

 respective destinations in the district above. The 

 beefcooly carries all our oilmanstores nowadays ; 

 the transport of Uquor has dwindled down to very 

 insignificant dimensions ; and the way into Madul- 

 sima is no longer barricaded by stacks of empty 

 beer bottles! 



Four miles' drive from Yapame will land you in 

 Lunugnla. There is little to see by the way, beyond 

 an upward peep at Shawlands, famous for the 

 beauty of its tree-bordered little lake away up in 

 the hills. 



You will find a horse awaiting you at Lunugala, 

 and a cooly to take your box on to Cocoawatte, 

 where you will find much that will interest you. 

 Two of the best new products the district has ever 

 produced will be fouml in tlie Cocoawatte bungalow 

 in the Philby's tine little boys. If you make good 

 use of your time you will be able to see a good 

 part of the estate before breakfast, and this course 

 I would advise you to adopt, provided that it 

 accords with the convenience of your host and 

 hostess. The bungalow hill, which was formerly 

 covered by a luxuriant growth of cinchona Ledger, 

 is now under tea, which has evidently found some- 

 thing to feed upon, in the comparatively poor- 

 looking soil, which forms this part of the estate. 

 As you descend into the pretty sheltered basin 

 below, you ^^ill find yourself wandering through 

 lovely sylvan glades, where the richness of the 

 vegetation is in striking contrast, to that which 

 clothes the high- lands of the district. A clearing 

 of flourishing cacao, which, at the date of my 

 visit, showed a fine appearance of young and 

 healthy fruit on the more advanced trees, with 

 clusters of delicate httle blossoms on those less fully 

 developed, is planted under the shade of the old fores't 

 giants, and seems to be completely successful. 

 Huge wide-spreading stocks of cardamoms border 

 the different streams, and cover those patches of 

 soil, which seem best suited to their successful cult- 

 ure, the ground being covered with a thick carpet 

 of their far-ramifying rhizome-like runners, covered 

 with little capsules full of the fragrant spice ; all 

 giving promise of handsome returns in the good time 

 coming. The rubber trees, too. sc m to have found 

 something in the soil congenial to their well- 

 being, and already admirably fulfil the shade pur- 

 poses for which they were planted. Instead of the 

 hour or two, to which your Cocoawatte visit must 

 be limited, I feel confident that you will leave it 

 with the regret that the hours were not days ; but 

 you must hurry on, foir already you will have 

 spent a great part of your first day in the 

 district. 



After breakfast, and half-an-hour's ride, in which 

 your artist's eye « ill linger lovingly on many a ferny 

 brake, and creejier-festooned clump of trees, on 

 your return journey up the zigzags, you may 

 depend on your "coo-ee-e" being- cheerfully re- 

 turned by • the ffan^ihawe," from his prettily situ- 

 ated little hungalow. You will learn what nonder- 

 ftil results attended the uprooting of a clearing 

 of cinchona I.' m- on I'arsloes, not only in the 

 matter of analjaio, auJ i;onse<iuentIy iu price, but 



in quantity per acre as well, the bark provnig 

 exceptionally thick and heavy for the age of the 

 trees. 



Leaving Parsloes with '-Figaro" or "Lucy Glit- 

 ters " leading the way as usual, a smart canter 

 will bring you to the boundary of the Park, where 

 you will see some of the finest succirubra trees for 

 their age, that have been grown anywhere in the 

 neighbourhood. On ilit that this is the best un- 

 broken cover of cinchona over five years old in the 

 district. It certainly has strong claims to this 

 distinction, but " comparisons are odious." The 

 young tea shrubs, planted under the shade of the 

 cinchona trees are healthy and well-grown, and 

 their appearance denotes the suitability of soil, 

 climate and rainfall tor the extensions of the new 

 king's domains. Before walking round the I'ark, 

 you should give instructions that your saddle- 

 horse be sent on to Yapame, to await your ar- 

 rival. The other horse with the trap should be 

 waiting you on the cart-road, at the point where 

 you will strike it, after walking over the patanaa 

 from the Park. Drive as fast as you can to Yapame, 

 whence you would do well to send the trap back to 

 Passara ; mount, and make straight for Mahadova. 

 Karslake will, I have no doubt, be delighted to see 

 you, and you will have an opportunity of talking 

 over your old experiences on the Kandy side 

 together. 



Y'ou must be up betimes in the morning, that 

 you may have a chance of seeing the sun rise 

 dripping from his ocean bed, for there are not many 

 spots on our fair earth, from which the advent of 

 "God's crest upon His azure shield, the Heavens,'' 

 can be viewed so advantageously. It is only on 

 a clear day, and under certain lights, that the 

 calm expanse of ocean is discernible at this great 

 distance, but in the early morning, the incessant 

 darting of long lances of light on the far horizon, 

 constantly and as mysteriously changing as the 

 forms in a kaleidoscope, tells us that the myriad 

 rays of the new-risen orb, have buried themselves 

 in the gleaming, moving surf, and are being re- 

 flected and refracted a thousand-fold. 



A magnificent stretch of lowcnuntry lies between 

 you and the coast-line, marked by features peculiar 

 to itself. The low-lands of this tropical island 

 of ours, seem always to be diversified more or 

 less, by billowy heavings of the general surface; 

 but here, we have an almost entirely flat land, 

 dotted over with mountains of rock, which rise 

 almost perpendicularly from the plain on which 

 they stand. I do not know how those huge piles 

 may be accounted for geologically, but to the 

 imagination it would seem as if this plain had 

 been the scene of that "battle of the gods," 

 which finds a place in the traditions of so 

 many nations, and as if some mountain or moun- 

 tain system had been torn to pieces, in order 

 to supply the ammtmition of these rebellious giants. 

 They have lain there for ages but subaerial 

 denudation and disintegration, have been slowly 

 and surely doing their woi-k, and they are now 

 broken up into serrated peaks, and pinnacle 

 crowned heights, which give them a most picturescjue 

 appearance. One of these fantastic masses is the 

 well-known landmark, euphemistically, but not in- 

 appropriately called " Westminster Abbey" ; so that 

 you sec, we poor denizens of far-away Madulsima 

 do possess something to prevent our forgetting 

 the world, even if we are by the world forgot, 

 Far beyond Westminster Aliliry stands the "Friar's 

 Hood,"" and away to the left Trincomalee-wards 

 you can just distinguish the "Gunner's 

 Quoin," But I am digrcssing--an expression 

 that some wite head has given utterance lo be- 



