508 



THE XORTIIERX FORESTS. 



[r.vKT IX. 



it was adapted. The number of cubic yards in tlie bund 

 is upwards of 17,000,000 ; and, at the ordinary value of 

 labour in this country, it must have cost 1,300,000/., 

 without including the stone facing on the inner side of 

 the bank. The same sum of money that would be 

 absorbed at tlie present day in making the embankment 

 of Padivil, would be sufficient to form an Enghsh railway, 

 one hundi'ed and twenty miles long, and its completion 

 would occupy 10,000 men for more than five years. 

 Be it remembered, too, that in addition to thirty of these 

 immense reservoirs in Ceylon, there are from five 

 hundred to seven hundred smaller tanks distributed over 

 the face of the country, the majority in ruins, but many 

 stiU in serviceable order, and all susceptible of effectual 

 restoration. 



Ha\in<T: devoted the raornino- to visitmo; the several 

 parts of this magnificent ruin, we returned to our tents, 

 wliich had been pitched at the foot of the great embank- 

 ment, near the breach through wliich the cmTcnt of the 

 waters escaped. Here we were rejoined by Captain 

 Gallwey, and the party of hunters who had separated 

 from us at Bintenne, and who brought us a welcome 

 addition to our larder in the shape of a buck, wliich they 

 killed on the confines of the great tank. In the afternoon 

 we started for Koolan-colom. 



The resrion in which Padi\'il is situated is conven- 

 tionaUy known by the epithet of the " Wannj^" ^ It 

 forms the extreme northern section of the island, im- 

 mediately adjoining the peninsula of Jaffiia, and in the 

 time of the Dutch its southern boundaries were the 

 Aripo river ^ and tlie Kalu-aar. Of its earlier history 

 no satisfactory record survives, beyond the ascer- 

 tained fiict that, after the withdrawal of tlie Sino-ha- 



* Two derivations are assigned to 

 this word, one sii^iiifieaut of the "/b- 

 rcs^," whicli covers it to a great ex- 

 tent; the other of the intense "heat" 



which characterises the region. 



- In the map given by Valexttx, 

 the ^\j'ipo river is called by the Dutch 

 the " Koronda Weya." 



