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crest, and curl in sudden impotence around the craggy summits. The deep 
ravine formed by an opposite mountain is filled with the vanquished mist, which 
4 
[ 
p.-- 
; spreads a perpetual rainbow upon the gauze-like cloud of fog which settles in 
sinks powerless in its dark gorge ; and the bright sun, shining from the east, 
the deep hollow. 
‘*This is exceedingly beautiful. The perfect circle of the rainbow stands 
like a fairy spell in the giddy depth of the hollow, and seems to forbid the 
advance of the monsoon. All before is bright and cloudless, the panorama of 
__ the Ouva country spreads before the eye for many miles beneath the feet. All 
behind is dark and stormy ; the wind is howling, the forests are groaning, the 
rain is pelting upon the hills. 
“*The change appears impossible; but there it is, ever the same; season 
after season, year after year, the rugged top of Hackgalla struggles with the 
storms, and ever victorious the cliffs smile in the sunshine on the Eastern side, 
the rainbow reappears with the monsoon, and its vivid circle remains like the 
guardian spirit of the valley. 
“*Tt is impossible to do justice to the extraordinary appearance of this scene 
by description. The panoramic view in itself is celebrated, but as the point in 
the road is reached where the termination of the monsoon dissolves the cloud 
and rain into a thin veil of mist, the panorama seen through the gauze-like 
atmosphere has the exact appearance of a dissolving view: the depth, height, 
_ and distance of every object, all great in reality, are magnified by the dim and 
unnatural appearance; and by a few steps onward the veil gradually fades 
away, and the distant prospect lies before the eye with a glassy clearness made 
doubly striking by the sudden contrast. 
__ “The road winds along about midway up the mountain, bounded on the right 
by the towering cliffs and sloping forest of Hackgalla, and on the left by the 
almost precipitous descent of nearly 1,000 feet, the sides of which are clothed 
by alternate forest and waving grass. At the bottom flows a torrent, whose 
Yoar ascending from the hidden depth increases the gloomy mystery of the 
_ scene. 
“On the North-east and South-east of Newera Ellia the sunshine is perpetual 
during the reign of the misty atmosphere, which the South-west monsoon drives 
upon the western side of the mountains, Thus there is always an escape oper 
from the wet season at Newera Ellia by a short walk of three or four miles, 
“A long line of dark cloud is then seen, terminated by a bright blue sky, 
So abrupt is the line, and the cessation of the rain, that it is difficult to imagine 
How the moisture is absorbed. 
“This sudden termination of the cloud-capped mountain gives rise to a violent 
wind in the sunny valleys and bare hills beneath. The chilled air of Newera 
Ellia pours down into the sun-warmed atmosphere below, and creates a gale 
that sweeps across the grassy hill-tops with great force, giving the sturdy 
