Chap. IV.] BATTICALOA. 455 



Cerithium ^ are equally remarkable for their size and the 

 activity of their motions. 



With the exception of the sea-hne, this part of the 

 coast has not been minutely surveyed, nor have these 

 singular and sohtary inlets ever been thorouglily explored. 

 Their navigation is only known to the natives, who find 

 their way through devious passages by noting particidar 

 trees, or by other landmarks known to them, but too 

 indistinct to serve as guides to the unpractised eye of a 

 Em^opean. Wlien ghding noiselessly in a canoe, nothing 

 can be more striking than the sensation caused by tmiiing 

 unexpectedly into one of these quiet and unfrequented 

 openings, where dense foliage lines each side and almost 

 meets above the water. The trees are covered with bkds 

 of gorgeous plumage ; pea-fowl sun themselves on the 

 branches, and snowy egrets and azure kingfishers station 

 themselves lower down to watch the fish, which frequent 

 these undisturbed pools in prodigious numbers. The 

 silence and stillness of these places is quite remarkable ; 

 the mournful cry of the water-fowl is heard from an 

 incredible distance ; and the plash of a crocodile as he 

 plunges into the stream, or the surprise of a deer when, 

 distiurbed at his morning draught, he 



" Stamps with all his hoofs togethei", 

 Listens with one foot uplifted," 



and breaks away to conceal himself in the jungle, cause 

 an instant commotion amongst the fishing birds and 

 cranes ; they rise heavily on their unwieldy Avings, and 

 betake themselves to the highest trees, where they wait 

 for the intruder's departure to resume then- patient watcli 

 upon the mangroves. 



In the immechate vicinity of Batticaloa the country 

 is but partially wooded, and the fort and town are 

 built on an island in one of those singular estuaries, 

 where the confluence of several streams has formed 

 a lake some thirty or forty miles lonsr, thoudi scarcely 



^ C. telescopium, C. palustre. 



G G 4 



