424 THE NORTIIEEX FORESTS. [Part IX. 



is that at no very remote period, tlie Vergel-aar was a 

 narrow watercourse, cut by the natives for irrigating 

 thcK paddi-lields, but that, the soil being hght and 

 yielding, it hollowed out and deepened its OAvn bed with 

 such rapidity as almost to drain the original channel 

 of the river below the point of junction ; the Yergel 

 becoming, what it now is, one of the most tumultvious 

 and dangerous torrents on the eastern side of Ceylon. 

 B}^ the same operation the original channel of the Maha- 

 welli-ganga was rendered so shallo"w as to be at all times 

 unna\^gable, and even diy in many places, except during 

 the freshes after the rains, Avlien it resumes its origmal 

 depth and unportance. 



]\Ii\ Brooke, in setting out to ascend the Mahawelh- 

 ganga from Trincomahe towards Kandy, proceeded by 

 land to a place on the main stream called Kooroogal- 

 gamma, thirty-two miles from the sea, up to which, 

 ow^ng to the level nature of the country, the river 

 being affected by the tides, the water is always more 

 or less salt. To this point he caused the boats to be 

 hauled up the stream ; but the channel was so diy that 

 in many places the boatmen failed to find even the few 

 inches of water requisite to float canoes, and were fre- 

 quently obhged to drag them over long banks of dry 

 sand. Between the sea and the junction with the Ver- 

 gel, there was not a village nor a human dwelling, 

 except the sohtary shed at a ferry near Kooroogal- 

 gamma, across whicli the people from the interior carry 

 their products to the bazaar of Trincomahe. Yet, such 

 is the fertihty of* the adjacent country, that, were the 

 river rendered navigable, large quantities of grain might 

 be carried down its com'se, and find a ready market at 

 numerous places on the coast. 



At the point where the main river empties its waters 

 into the Yergel, the bed of the latter is so deep and 

 nan^ow that the current rushes in with extreme impe- 

 tuosity. The natives, in floating down timber to Trin- 

 comahe, whilst the river is high after the rains, approach 



