407 



CHAPTEE I. 



FOREST TRAVELLIXG IX CEYLOX. 



Ox the adjonrnment of the Council in tlie sprino- of 

 1848, I availed myself of the recess in order to acquire 

 a personal knowledge of a part of the island which the 

 urgency of piibhc affairs had previously prevented me 

 from visiting. The journey that I contemplated, ex- 

 tended round the unfrequented country Ipng to the 

 north of the MahaweUi-ganga and the Kandyan zone, 

 comprising that section of the island which formed, at 

 a remote period, the division of the Singhalese Kino- 

 dom, known as Pihiti, or the Eaja-ratta. It includes 

 the ruins of two of the ancient capitals ; Anarajapoora 

 and Pollanarrua ; and from the extent of its works for 

 irrigation, and the number of its agricultural com- 

 munities, it must have been, at an early period, the 

 most productive as well as the most densely populated 

 portion of Ceylon. This character it retained until the 

 misery and devastation consequent on the incursions 

 and domination of the Malabars reduced its cities to 

 ruins, its villages to desolation, and its cultivated lands 

 to wilderness and jungle. With the exception of those 

 tracts which approach the coast, it is now one continuous 

 forest, extending from sea to sea, concealing the ruins of 

 stupendous monuments, and encircling the sites of pro- 

 digious reservofrs ; some of them of dimensions so vast, 

 that even in then- decay they form artificial lakes of miles 

 in ckcumference. 



This singular region is so httle known to Europeans 

 that in one of the most recent Maps of Ceylon \ it is left 



• Adas of the Socictij for the DiJJ'mivn of Useful Kiiotdedje. 



D D 4 



