2 go Voyage of tJie Novara. 



Nuvvera Ellia, Kandy, Matelle, and Ruanwelli, near Co- 

 lombo, as also in Matura, and the river courses on the 

 eastern side, towards the ancient Mahagam. The geologist 

 of the Expedition visited some mines of precious stones near 

 Ratnapoora. These are situated on the Kaluga-Sella, a 

 small tributary of the Kalu-Gunga, and lie, some in the 

 very bed of the river, some on the steep bank. They are 

 about thirty feet deep, but having been some time disused, they 

 are full of water. The uppermost stratum of these pits or 

 mines is a rich fertile yellow loam, exactly resembling our 

 diluvial loams. This is succeeded, according to the report 

 of the proprietor of the mines, by a slimy black clay, and 

 clayey sand, beneath which again is a bituminous clay, hold- 

 ing numerous organic remains, such as leaves, trunks of trees 

 converted into a substance resembling lignite, and not infre- 

 quently elephants' tusks and bones of animals; thereafter 

 sand, and lastly a bank of rolled gravel, forming a species of 

 conglomerate with red, yellow, and occasionally blue clay — 

 being, in fact, what is known as stone-gravel. This bank of 

 pebbles is the layer in which the precious stones occur, and 

 these are most commonly found between the larger masses 

 of agglutinated matter, that are always found especially to 

 abound in gems, whenever they are superposed upon what 

 is called malave, which appears to be a sort of greenish- 

 coloured talc-like half-decomposed mica. The most valuable 

 stones that are obtained from these mines are rubies and 

 sapphires. In the Kalu-Gunga, also, precious stones are 



