122 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 
commodities which would produce both directly and indirectly 
its effect upon local plant life, either by the introduction of 
species of economic value, or by the direct export of woods 
found at hand. 
In support of this it is noticeable that to the north-west of 
Pottuvil, Palu (Mimusops luxandra) and Satinwood (Chloroxy- 
lon swietenia) are comparatively abundant, as contrasted with 
the scarcity of the same species on the banks of the Kumbukkan 
river. Again, while Mi (Bassia longifolia) is abundant on 
the Kumbukkan, it may be called rare west of Pottuvil. As 
this last-named is an introduction of great value, it was spared 
where it existed near towns, but was neglected in those loca- 
lities where the population had no permanent settlement, as 
we find is the case with the majority of the Maha Wedirata 
‘« villages ’’ of the present day, and it is only in some places 
of old establishment that we find the Mi tree now. 
The present population is very much scattered, its distri- 
bution being undoubtedly governed by the presence or 
absence of water; hence it will be found that the so-called 
villages are at considerable distances apart, and only where 
a supply of water can be got, however small or impure, 
all the year round. On the other hand, one finds the example 
of an unpopulated area bounded by a perennial stream, as 
in the case of the valley of the Kumbukkan river for the 
last thirty miles of its course. Here, however, we have the 
instance of a stream that rises to an enormous flood that 
inundates the country to a depth of many feet on both its 
banks, thus drowning out, in the wet season, any annual 
cultivation, and leaving the place parched and dry during 
the periods of drought—two factors sufficient to keep back 
a people unprepared to establish strong measures to secure 
permanent occupation. 
Nor is this all. The Kumbukkan river, after it passes the 
foot of the isolated mass of the Monaragala hills, enters a 
country that afforded the Veddas their best hunting ground, 
and the Veddas appear in their early history to have been a 
race of people who depended almost entirely on the chase, 
using for their dwellings the rudest shelters of caves and 
temporary branch huts. They had no inducement to build 
