SUBMERGED PLA,TEAT7 SURROUNDESTG CEYLON. 75 



(2) Differing in degree, not only according to the side of tlte 

 Island, east or west ; but 



(3) Also as between north and south ; and that 



(4) One of the moving causes emanates from the south, and the 

 other from the north. 



I beg to offer the following suggested explanations : — 



Firstly, in a large and general way, it is noticeable that Ceylon is 

 constructed in two marked divisions, namely, mountain country 

 and flat coimtry ; there is scarcely any midway between them ; and 

 the hills, whether isolated or taking the mountain district as a 

 whole, appear each to be swimming in a flat ocean of soil (if one may 

 use such a simile) from which they spring abruptly. 



The next large point to be noticed is that the greater part of the 

 flat country is spread out to the northward of the hills, tailing off 

 in a point of lagoons and shallows ; but that there is also a spreading 

 out of flat land to the eastward and westward*, though not so exten- 

 sive, and practically none at all to the extreme south. 



A consideration that here intervenes is the probability that the 

 mountain region of Ceylon has never been submerged at any time ; 

 or if it has, not for any great length of time, and this is evidenced by 

 the entire absence of chalk or sedimentary limestone, or of any 

 calcareous aqueous deposit. The Ceylon mountains have existed, 

 it may confidently be stated, in their present average condition 

 since their first formation, giving a condition of stability and a field 

 for the continuous action of denudation for immense ages. 



What the meteorological conditions of Ceylon were at the time of 

 its first appearance it would be hard to say ; but a good antiquity 

 may be predicted for the monsoons, which have probably existed 

 as long as the ocean, though modified in degree by the changes in 

 the obliquity of the ecliptic. 



And, springing from the same cause as the monsoons (namely, 

 the annual movement of the sun and its heat focus), the ocean 

 currents have similarly visited the Island with equal regularity and 

 antiquity. 



The point to which I am leading is this, namely, that the low- 

 country of Ceylon has, on the whole, been derived from the 

 denudation of the mountain country, and has been laid down on a 

 plateau, of which we now find remaining a 12-mile fringe sur- 

 rounding the Island. 



Following these prefatory remarks, I now refer to the four points 

 for consideration above stated in numerical order : — 



(1) The soil of Ceylon is on the whole friable, and easy to be 

 detached and washed down by the monsoon rains on either side. 



