268 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[May 



i, 1904. 



PERADENIYA GARDEN. 

 [Planted Castilloa elastica and cacao.] 



ing. It cost 10 rupees [=about $3.64] for the making, and the 

 man who delivered it got 2 rupees, because the tailor, his mas- 

 ter, was such a hard man to work for, and the boy who was 

 with the man who delivered it got 1 rupee because of some af- 

 fliction that he had suffered, and the dog that accompanied the 

 boy who was with the man— well, he didn't get anything, but I 

 vow he sat up and begged just as long as I was in sight. 



I made an early start for Peradeniya, which means "guava 

 plain," going by the government railway in a very comfortable 

 first class car that is a sort of compromise between the Amer- 

 ican smoking car and the English compartment car, and about 

 half the size. The government railways, by the way, are pretty 

 generally good in Ceylon. The equipment is all that could be 

 expected, although the cars are small ; the freight cars, for ex- 

 ample, being 12 ton affairs with corrugated iron roofs, and the 

 locomotives look very light. The railway stations, however, 

 are extremely good, and in most of them a white man need not 

 wait at the ticket window, but may march into the agent's 

 sanctum, and get his ticket before the natives are served. The 

 profits that the railroads earn is expended on the carriage 

 roads, a plan that some praise and some condemn. Anyhow, 

 the latter roads are first class, and an automobilist could go 

 from one end of the island to the other if the elephants did 

 not object. 



Soon after breakfast we were bidden to the " refreshment 

 carriage" where a good breakfast was served for about 60 



cents. After breakfast I sat on the shady side in my car, 

 and took note of the great paddy fields in which sullen water 

 buffalo wallowed and fed, and where natives clad only in 

 breechcloths, and daubed from head to foot in clayey mud, 

 toiled in a half hearted way. Soon after the scenery became 

 more interesting as we climbed to higher ground, the road 

 running above a winding valley where great stretches of jungle 

 were broken by banana and rice plantations, with occasional 

 glimpses of splendid government carriage roads, with rugged 

 mountain ranges in the distance. 



Every now and then we stopped at a neat railway station, 

 crowded with natives, interspersed with a few Europeans, for 

 whom, by the way, the first class waiting rooms and cars are 

 always reserved. Between Polgahawela and Rambukkana, by 

 the side of the track, is a very considerable plantation of Hevea, 

 covering some sixty acres, the trees being planted about 8 feet 

 apart. They are about three years old, and would average for 

 a guess 30 feet in height. 



Further on, as we still ascended, the valley below was often a 

 series of terraced paddy plots for miles. Then as we still skirted 

 the valley, which was farther and farther below us, we crept 

 through many tunnels, clung to the sides of precipices, getting 

 occasional glimpses of Adam's Peak, the famous mountain of the 

 island, and still far below, we saw winding through the jungle 

 — crossing rivers — the white roads, hard, smooth, wide, equal 

 to any park roads at home, and then up, up, we climbed, the 



PERADENIYA GARDEN. 

 [Castilloa elastica planted among cocoanut palms.] 



cabbage palms, bread fruit trees, and tropical growths now 

 finding their home on the rocks, or in the wash of steep moun- 

 tain ravines. The air was rapidly growing dryer, a decided re- 

 lief after the steamy atmosphere at the sea level ; nor did I note 

 the heat as I leaned out to see as much as possible of the great 



