CiJAP. II.] RESTORATION OF RUIXED TANKS. 431 



of two vast masses of rock, whicli have been included 

 in the retaining bund, the intervening spaces being 

 filled up by earth-work, and faced "svith stone. In order 

 to form the sluices, it is obvious that the simplest plan 

 would have been to have placed them in the artificial 

 portions of the bank ; but the builders, conscious of the 

 comparatively unsubstantial nature of their own Avork, 

 and apprehensive of the combined effect of the weight 

 and rush of the water, foresaw that the immense force 

 of its discharge w^ould speedily wear away any artificial 

 conduits they could have constructed for its escape ; 

 and they had the resolution to hollow out channels in 

 the sohd rock ; through Avhich they opened two passages, 

 each sixty feet deep, four feet broad at the bottom, and 

 widening to fifteen or twenty at the top. The walls 

 on either side still exhibit traces of the wedges by which 

 the stone was riven to effect the openings. These pas- 

 sages had formerly been furnished with sluices for regu- 

 lating tlie quantity of water allowed to escape, and the 

 hewn stones which retain these flood-gates he displaced, 

 but unbroken in the bed of the channel. 



The tank is now comparatively neglected, and its re- 

 taining Avail Avould e\idently have been long since Avorn 

 aAvay by the force of the escaping Avater, had not this 

 precaution of its builders effectually provided against 

 its destruction. The basin abounds Avith crocodiles, 

 some of Avhich were lying on the rocks as Ave rode up, 

 and floundered into the lake on oiu" approach. The 

 embankment A\^as overgroAvn not merely Avith jungle, 

 but Avith forest trees, Avhose roots ha\"e contributed to 

 giA'e it solidity. Amongst these are numbers of the 

 curious Terminalia alata^ Avhose roots run above ground 

 as thick as a man's Avrist ; the extremity of each, instead 

 of terminating in a single fibre, expands into a round 

 knob as large as a melon. The margin of the Avater 

 shoAved the dead shells of the Unio, AAdiich abounds 

 in the Ceylon tanks, and might become an article of 

 food Avcre it not for the prejuchce of the natives. One 



