74 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 



oceanic causes, in combination with others originating in meteor- 

 ological conditions affecting the land. 1 refer to the growth and 

 changes in the coast line. 



My attention was drawn to the matter first of all by the strange 

 absence of coral reef the whole way round the southern half of 

 Ceylon , from Chilaw to Trincomalee. It is true that little patches occur 

 here and there, as at Hikkaduwa and GaUe, but after a considerable 

 experience of tropical seas, it seemed remarkable to me that there 

 was not only no wide fringing or barrier reef to Ceylon, but that 

 scarcely any specimens were brought up on the lead whilst sounding. 



The brown colour of the sand forming the beach round the 

 southern shores would alone point to the absence of coral, being 

 so dissimilar to the typical glaring whiteness of the beach behind 

 a coral reef. 



The first explanation that occurred to me was when journeying 

 by the coast railway. I saw in the vicinity of Ambalangoda the 

 strange spectacle of natives digging coral out of an apparently not 

 very ancient reef, which is now about half a mile from the coast, 

 and covered by four or five feet of black humus. 



It is thus apparent that the coast line, in that locality at any rate, 

 is in process of extension outwards ; and it seems possible that the 

 following considerations point to such a process being not only 

 continuous, but sufficiently rapid to prevent the growth of coral, 

 except in favoured corners, such as that now to be seen by the 

 resthouse at Hikkaduwa, or as in the case of the reef, now overcome 

 by the accumulation of soil, that I saw from the train, which may 

 originally have been similarly circumstanced. 



Attention is now called to the existence and distribution of the 

 lakes that fringe the coast line of Ceylon, as exhibited in fig. IV., 

 and it wiU be noticed that — 



(1) These lakes or lagoons occur practically all round the Island; 

 but 



(2) In milch greater frequency on the east coast than on the west, 

 and to the north than to the south ; 



(3) That while those to the southward are now aU enclosed from 

 the sea and become fresh, those to the northward — Negombo, 

 Puttalam, Jaffna, and Batticaloa, for example — are still open to 

 the sea and salt ; and that 



(4) While those stiU open to the sea on the west of the Island 

 have been formed by bars of sand, &c., pointing to the north, those 

 on the east of the Island have their bars pointing in the other 

 direction, namely, to the southward. 



It wUl further be remarked, under the above numerical headings, 

 that — 



(1) The contributing causes must be of a similar nature in all 

 cases ; but 



