Mr. E. L. Layard's Rambles in Ceylon. 225 



government agent was now about to connect with MuUetivoe on the 

 one side, and the central road on the other. If you place a map on 

 the table and trace my course, you will find this makes a pretty large 

 triangle to travel over, one end of it falling about half-way between 

 Jaffna and Anarajahpoora, and this is the point to which we made. 



On the 7th, therefore, at 3 p.m., we started for Mulliavilly, Mr. F.'s 

 tents and our baggage preceding us. At first our road lay over 

 the open country by the side of the lake, which we doubled, and 

 crossing a small stream that fell into it, and in which, basking near 

 the ford, lay two huge alligators, we entered into the Ebony and 

 Satin-wood Jungle which we had seen throughout our journey on our 

 right. I cannot describe the beauty of parts of the jungles through 

 which we threaded our way in Indian file ; I suppose to my eyes they 

 presented peculiar charms, as I constantly detected some new plant, 

 or some bird that I should have dehghted to have got ; we however 

 had to push on, and my companions cared little for collecting. 

 During our ride we passed through the village of Tanyuttu, where 

 F. pointed out a lovely spring of water, which bubbled up by the 

 side of the road, and furnished a luxuriant coppice in which a botanist 

 would have delighted ; from this spring are brought most, if not all, 

 of the medicinal leeches used in the northern province. Templeton 

 used to say there were several species in the island, and had them 

 figured ; but I have never paid much attention to them ; my hands 

 are too full already of other matters. I can speak by painful expe- 

 rience of the land-leech, and I have seen another curious species at 

 Pt. Pedro, which is of a light brown colour above, white underneath ; 

 very broad and thin, and has a peculiarly-shaped tail, half-moon 

 shaped, in fact hke a grocer's cheese-knife ; I have seen but two of 

 these, and found them both on the bark of trees, after some heavy 

 rain. A little beyond Tanyuttu we came to a boggy piece of ground, 

 and Q. detected a snipe : down he must get to have a shot at it, as he 

 had not killed one this year. Up went the snipe before old Ponto. 

 Q. fired and killed him, and up got fifty or sixty more from every 

 quarter of the field : this was too much to bear ; so I dismounted and 

 shot also, and as they lay well we soon bagged six brace of them, 

 and remounting trotted on to our destination, where F.'s tents, 

 prettily placed under some fine jack- trees, laden with their ponderous 

 fruit, looked very inviting, particularly as a savoury smell came from 

 one of them, which we soon made out to be roast duck, Man Friday 

 having bagged a brace while crossing the lake in the morning. After 

 our dinner we sat and chatted till a late hour, when we lay down ; 

 sleep however we found to be out of the question— mosquitoes swarmed 

 on us and on the dogs, who kept up a fearful howling. Q. got up and 

 lit a cigar, and we made a fire of green leaves and sticks to drive out 

 the tormentors, but we nearly smoked out our eyes as well ; so creeping 

 entirely mider a blanket, and half suffocated with the heat, I ma- 

 naged to get an hour's sleep, but before daylight was awakened by 

 the village headman who came for orders. After speaking with 

 him, F. returned home, and Q. and I pursued our way along the 

 native path towards Coddallycallu. 



Ann. fif Mag. JSI. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xi. 15 



