41 6 Voyage of the Novara. 



The first faint glimmer of dawn invited us once more to the 

 open air, in order to contemplate the wonderful aspect of Nature 

 at this elevation. We had, after leaving Ratnapoora, taken 

 barometrical and thermometrical observations, with the view 

 of determining the elevation at nine different stations, which 

 had been, wherever practicable, selected in such manner, that 

 by means of them the various limits of certain classes of vegeta- 

 tion were indicated, which in many instances are marked out 

 with extraordinary distinctness upon the perpendicular side 

 of the peak. These series of observations, which were at the 

 same time supplemented by investigations as to the tem- 

 perature of the soil and of various springs, will be compared 

 with the results of previous scientific visitors to the summit of 

 Adam's Peak, and published in another form. The geology 

 of the isolated pinnacle of Adam's Peak, so far as the dense 

 covering of primeval forests permitted us to observe, is uncom- 

 monly simple and uniform. The chief directions of the 

 lofty chain of mountains in Southern Ceylon, separated from 

 each other by level plateau-like depressions, is from S.S.E. 

 to N.N.W., corresponding likewise with the chief directions of 

 the strata of gneiss, of which these mountains are composed. 

 The gneiss is uniformly of a species not often met with, 

 studded with garnets, and between its strata are inserted single 

 beds of hornblende-gneiss and splinters of pure hornblende, 

 as also granulite-gneiss and pure granulite. The steep, final 

 cone of the rock consists of a granulitic gneiss of varying 

 texture from coarse to fine, and abounding in garnets. Every- 



