Various Cocoa Manvfactures. 367 



existence, but the fruit itself forms at the same time so 

 important and valuable an article of produce, that the 

 cultivation of the cocoa-nut has been regularly and syste- 

 matically carried on by European enterprise since 1841 — 

 at present covering; an area of 23,000 English acres — while 

 the proportion of native land on which this, the most useful 

 growth of the tropics, is cultivated, amounts to about 

 100,000 acres. Formerly, the nuts were shipped to foreign 

 parts for the extraction of their oil ; but for this purpose 

 there are now on the island itself, especially in Colombo and 

 Galle, a considerable number of manufactories, at which the 

 oil already expressed from the nuts is usually at once put 

 into casks for exportation. The quantity of oil thus exported 

 annually is estimated at from 1,000,000 to 1,500,000 gallons, 

 worth from .£'100,000 to £150,000. Besides this, the 

 elastic fibre of the outer husii of the cocoa-nut is used in the 

 manufacture of ropes, door-mats, &c., and, under the name 

 of Coir, forms an important article of export, the annual con- 

 sumption averaging between 30,000 and 40,000 quintals 

 (centner weight), worth from £20,000 to £25,000. 



The first station on leaving Galle for Colombo is Bentotte, 

 where, as is the custom all through the country, there is 

 a " resting-house " open to all travellers, similar to the 

 "Choultries" in India, the " Caravanserais," or lodgings for 

 pilgrims, in Eastern countries, or the " Pasangrahans," of 

 Java. These resting-houses, which all through the interior 

 of the island are found on the highways and forest roads, 



