10 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 



A peculiarity of these islands is said to be that there are no 

 squirrels and no jackals, though I beheve jackals cross the shallow 

 strait between Velanai and Punkudutivu. Analaitivu has the 

 advantage, too, of having very few pariah dogs ; it was quite quiet 

 at night. 



In Analaitivu there are only 9 licensed carts and 5 farm carts. 

 The population returns since 1871 are 1871, 1,064; 1881, 1,296; 

 1891, 1,411 ; 1901, 1,543; an increase of 45 per cent, in thirty 

 years. The increase in the Jaffna District during the same period 

 is only 21 '8 per cent. 



I was altogether much pleased with this island, though I hear 

 that some of these people are in debt to the Karaitivu money- 

 lenders, the Jews of Jaffna. 



It is described in the directions attached to the naval charts as 

 " 2^ miles long bj^ 1 broad." 



December 9. — Walked about three-quarters of a mile to a place 

 called Koddaiyadi ("place of the fort"), which is the starting 

 point for boats going to Kayts, &c., and left for the next island, 

 Elavutivu, due north of Analaitivu. At Koddaiyadi there is a 

 mound of earth and stones, the remains, according to the people, 

 of a Portuguese (" Paranki ") fort, which has given its name to the 

 place. 



Between the two islands there is a small one called Paruttitivu, 

 " Cotton Island," which, owing to want of water, is uninhabited. 



Elavutivu. 



Landed at the extreme northern end of Elavutivu, on the side 

 facing Kayts, where there is a good tiled bungalow for the use of the 

 preventive officer, who is stationed here during the south-west 

 monsoon. He is now at Mandaitivu. 



This side of the island is all sand, the western side is all coral. 

 Elavutivu is an island of palmyras, which cover it from one end to 

 the other (cohsequently it is as untidy as Analaitivu is the opposite). 



The people hvs on the palmyra ; they make baskets, very strong, 

 as they have a covering of the fibre (nar), and very cheap, the cost 

 of one being 6 cents. 



They have never been required to pay road tax as they have no 

 road. They are not now poor, the palmyra fibre industry, now 

 extinct, having put a good deal of money into their — I cannot saj' 

 pockets — waist-cloths. A road from north to south through the 

 island would much improve it. At present it is all higgledy- 

 piggledy. To get from one end to the other you have to skirt 

 compounds, first on one side and then on the other, pick your way 

 through coral stones and prickly pear, and plough through sand 

 and meander through the palmyras. 



Elavutivu is described in the naval charts as " 2 miles long, 8 

 cables' length broad, trees 70 feet high." 



