( 383 ) 
XXII.—A Letter from Lieutenant-Colonel Writram Macezan Grorce Cote- 
BROOKE, Of the Royal Artillery, F.R.S., M.R.A.S., &c. &c., transmitting 
three Fac-similes of Inscriptions discovered on the Island of Ceylon. 
Read 19th of January 1833. 
To Graves C. Havcuton, Esq., M.A., F.R.S., Secretary to the Royal 
Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. 
London, 12th of January 1833. 
Sir: 
I have the pleasure to communicate to the Royar Asratic Society of 
Great Britain anp Irexanp, the copies of some inscriptions* which were 
taken from a rock in the district of Batticaloa in the island of Ceylon, by Mr. 
N. J. Moyaart, of the Civil Service, and transmitted to me by that gentle- 
man. ‘The character is, I believe, unknown; but on reference to the ninth 
volume of the Asiatic Researches, pages 272 and 278, a character resembling 
this appears in some ancient inscriptions copied by the late Colonel Coxin 
Mackenzie from a Jaina temple at Calyani. 
On 
* Vide Plate 13.—The plan of the Hot Spring, which is given on the plate over the 
inscriptions, has been retained, because it is so placed in the original drawing; and it is not 
improbable that the inscriptions may bear some reference to it, particularly as they are not 
above a mile and a-half from the spring. The natives in general attach something of a sacred 
character to these phenomena; the hot wells near Trincomalee, for instance, are said to have 
been a favourite resort of the sage AGastyA, and medical writings attributed to this Hindi 
Esculapius are sti)! held in the highest estimation over the whole of the Southern peninsula of 
India. Another example of the sacred character of these springs is afforded in the account of 
the hot wells near Surat, by the late Dr. Wurre, which is inserted in the present volume of 
the Transactions. The spring, which is the subject of this note, is apparently one of those 
referred to by Dr. Davy, in his account of Ceylon, page 46. The temperature of the water is 
there stated to be too high to be borne by the hand, and sufficient to dress meat and vegetables ; 
a use to which it is applied by the natives. The spring is constantly bubbling, and the 
specific gravity of a specimen of the water examined by Dr. Davy was 1-0011. 
Von. ILI. 38D 
