A VISIT TO THE GEM DISTRICTS OF CEYLON AND 
BURMA * 
By Frank D. Apams, Emeritus, Vice Principal, Dean of the Faculties of Applied 
Science and Graduate Studies, ané Logan Professor of Geology, at McGill 
University, Montreal, Quebec 
[With 6 plates] 
CEYLON 
The island of Ceylon, which is one of the most beautiful posses- 
sions of the British Empire, has been an abode of man from the 
very earliest times. The Veddhas, a wild tribe of some 4,500 people 
still living in the fastnesses of the jungle in the east central portion 
of the island, are believed to represent a remnant of the oldest 
inhabitants of which we have any actual knowledge, but in the 
caves in which they live there are found the stone axes and other 
implements of Paleolithic people who represent the first race of 
men who inhabited our globe, and of whom they may be, for all 
that is known, the direct descendants. About the fifth century before 
Christ there came the Aryan invaders, apparently from the north 
of India, who drove the Veddhas into the remote fastnesses of the 
jungle and developed the remarkable Singhalese civilization, whose 
high character is demonstrated by the remarkable and very extensive 
system of irrigation works which they built up and through which 
they made the island wonderfully productive. Great cities arose, 
some of which are believed to have had a population of over a mil- 
lion souls and whose temples and public buildings show that the 
people were accomplished architects and sculptors. About the third 
century before Christ there began a series of waves of invasion by 
the Tamil people of the south of India, who defeated and drove the 
Singhalese down into the southern half of the island, completely 
destroying the great irrigation system and throwing down the cities. 
They “let in the jungle,” which, slowly advancing as the years went 
by, resumed its ancient domain and completely covered up the 
former glorious abodes of men. The “buried cities” of Anaradha- 
pura, Pollonnaruva, and Siguri, whose remains can be seen in the 
midst of the jungle, constitute one of the most striking examples of 
an obliterated civilization. Occasional travelers from Greece and 
1 Reprinted by permission from Transactions of the Canadian Institute of Mining and 
Metallurgy, part of Vol. XXIX, 1926. 
297 
