492 THE NORTHEEN FORESTS. [Part IX. 



fish. It produces in singular perfection the thin trans- 

 parent oyster {Placuna placenta), whose clear white 

 shells are used, in China and elsewhere, as a substitute 

 for window glass. They are also collected annually for 

 the sake of the diminutive pearls contained in them, and 

 these are exported to the coast of India, to be burned 

 into a species of hme, Avhich the more luxurious princes 

 affect to chew with their betel. So prohfic are the 

 moUusca of the Placuna, that the quantity of shells taken 

 by the licensed renter in the three years prior to 1858, 

 could not have been less than eighteen millions.^ They 

 dehght in brackish water, and on more than one recent 

 occasion, an excess of either salt water or fresh has 

 proved fatal to great numbers of them. 



The forest approaches so close to the town that the 

 vicinity of Trincomahe is often \isited by wild animals. 

 In one of my evening drives on the high road, in the 

 direction of Mllavelh, the passage was obstructed by a 

 herd of wild elephants, and the carriage had to halt 

 whilst the horse-keepers drove them into the jungle. 

 Leopards frequently approach the town-, and monkeys^ 

 are so numerous, as to be a pest in the gardens. Their 

 method of approach was described to me by a gentle- 

 man, whose grounds they frequently visited. A green 

 sward separated his garden from the jimgle, and across 

 this a single monkey would cautiously steal about 

 twenty paces, and halt to assure himself, by eye and 

 ear, that all was safe. Presently a second would ven- 

 ture out from the trees, pass in front of the first, and 

 squat himself, after making another reconnaissance. A 

 tliird, and possibly a fourtli, would thus stealthily ap- 



^ Report of Dr. Kelaaet, Oct. 



1857. 



* A belief is prevalent at Trin- 

 conialie that a Beng-al tiger inhabits 

 the junirle in its vicinity; and the 

 story runs tliat it escaped fr<Mii the 

 Avi-eck of a vessel on which it had 

 been embarked for England. Offi- 

 cers of the Government state posi- 



tively that they have more than once 

 come on it whilst hunting ; and one 

 gentleman of tlie Ifoyal Engineers 

 who had seen it, assured me that he 

 coidd not be mistaken a.s to its being 

 a tiger of India, and one of the 

 laa-gest description. 



^ Preshytes cephalopterus. P. 

 Priavius. 



