TOPOGRAPHICAL NOTES ON THE JAFFNA ISLANDS. 7 



wind and sea on Saturday, and accordingly the captain had to give 



up attempting to make Mandaitivu and had to go to Kayts instead. 



We arrived off Mandaitivu at 3.15 p.m. Weather quite calm now. 



Kayts. 



December 29. — There is a miscellaneous callection of vessels in 

 the harbour, including half a dozen vadas from Masulipatam. This 

 is a vessel of peculiar rig with very thick masts, and these boats are 

 said to be very strong. They carry a large lug sail on the foremast, 

 and some of them are three-masted or rather four, for they all have 

 a small mast hke a stick right on the stern, in addition to their masts 

 proper. 



There were also two Jcala dhonies from Topputturai. These have 

 both masts close together and are rigged with square sails, very 

 clumsy looking boats, but implicitly believed in by some native 

 merchants. They have square sterns and immense rudders, and 

 are always covered in with a cadjan roof. 



There were besides barques, brigs, schooners, and Ceylon dhonies, 

 which are different from the types above described, having an 

 immense bowsprit with five foresails bent on it. 



There was a small schooner without square sails, from Tondi on 

 the south coast of India. 



The kala dhonies from Topputturai bring paddy, rice, and cattle, 

 and the vadas bring rice. The cattle from Topputturai and Amma- 

 patam are the ordmary white " Coast bulls." Cattle, for slaughter 

 and for up-country butchers, come from Paumben. 



Pots and pans come from Pondicherry, Kudulur, and Porto 

 Novo ; also chatties, but not pots, from Ammapatam. The 

 Pondicherry pots are much more durable than any made in Ceylon. 

 The best Ceylon pots known in the Northern Province at any rate, 

 are from Koddiyar in the Trincomalee District. No Jaffna-made 

 pots are as good. Tiles and timber borne from Ponani, fullers- 

 earth from Kilakhari and Ammapatam. The timber imported 

 is " kaltekku," which is used for boat building. Cowdung for 

 manure is actually imported from Mannar. Pa,ddy was imported 

 from Paumben this year for tlie first time, the Sub-Collector says, 

 from some fields in Rameswaram island ; also from Kottapatam, 

 a port on a river near Masulipatam. A considerable quantity 

 comes also from Akyab. 



Kayts is the third port in point of importance in the Island, and, 

 unlike other ports of the Jaffna peninsula, is, owing to its sheltered 

 position, open in both monsoons. During the south-west monsoon 

 vessels come to it from ports on the east coast of India, south of 

 Coconada, such as Devipatam, Tondi, Ammapatam, Kollapata- 

 nam, Adriampatam, Muttupet, Point Calimere, Topputturai, 

 Pondicherry, Porto Novo, Masulipatam, Kottapatam, and from 

 Coconada. 



