CEYLON 



1258 



CHAD 



Strait. The island is pear-shaped, 271 miles 

 in extent from north to south and 137 miles in 

 greatest width, with an area of 25,281 square 

 miles. It is therefore about five-sixths as large 

 as Ireland or the state of South Carolina. 

 The surface is very mountainous in the in- 



LOCATION MAP 



terior, with a low-lying coast line of coral 

 reef. The most noted mountain is Adams Peak 

 (7,420 feet), to which Buddhists make religious 

 pilgrimages. 



People and History. Ceylon, like India, is a 

 very ancient land, and contains some of the 

 most remarkable ruins in the world. It is also 

 one of the chief centers of Buddhism. The 

 native inhabitants are the Singhalese, who have 

 lived here many centuries. They are Buddhists 

 and a gentle and peaceable, but effeminate, 

 people. The men have the curious custom 

 of dressing like women. They wear skirts and 

 earrings and have long hair, which they do 

 up on their heads with immense tortoise-shell 

 combs. 



Europe entered into Ceylon's history by the 

 invasion of the Portuguese in 1505, of the 

 Dutch in 1636, and of the British in 1795. In 

 1831 the entire island consented to British rule 

 and became a crown colony of the Empire, 

 having a governor appointed in London; each 

 of its nine provinces was placed under a gov- 

 ernment agent. It is now one of England's 

 most prosperous colonies. Its population is 

 over 3,500,000, more than half Singhalese; 

 others are Hindus, Mohammedans and Euro- 

 peans. Colombo is the capital and one of its 

 three great harbors, the others being Galle and 

 Trincomalee, the latter one of the finest in 

 the world. There are 600 miles of railroad on 

 the island. See COLOMBO. 



Vegetable and Animal Life. Ceylon is a 

 tropical island, situated between 6 and 10 

 north of the equator. Its climate is hot on 

 the coast, but cool and delightful in the up- 

 lands, where white residents build their homes. 

 Agriculture is the chief occupation. The cocoa- 

 nut palm, breadfruit, plantain, cinnamon, 

 mango and bamboo abound, while there are 

 plantations of tea, rice, coffee and tobacco. 

 Over 457,000 -acres of land are devoted to the 



tea plantations, while more than 644,000 acres 

 are cultivated for rice. The bo-tree, banyan, 

 ebony and satinwood trees grow in the forests, 

 while the cinchona tree is cultivated for its 

 bark, from which quinine is made. There are 

 gold, graphite and precious stones in the moun- 

 tains and pearl fisheries on the coast. 



The most important agricultural feature is 

 the cultivation of the tea plant. Its growth 

 has been truly marvelous. In 1873 the export 

 of tea was only twenty-three pounds; at the 

 beginning of the War of the Nations in 1914 

 it was nearly 200,000,000 pounds. More than 

 one thousand plantations, chiefly in the moun- 

 tains, employ about 400,000 people, most of 

 whom come over from India, where employ- 

 ment is difficult to find. See TEA. 



Animal life is very abundant, there being 

 innumerable varieties of birds and insects and 

 many larger animals. Of the latter, the ele- 

 phants are the largest and most numerous, sev- , 

 eral thousands of them roaming wild through 

 the forests. Many, however, are tamed and 

 make valuable beasts of burden. Many of the 

 tame elephants in India come from Ceylon ; the 

 remainder from Burma. The Ceylon elephant 

 does not have the long ivory tusks for which 

 the African elephant is hunted. K.A.G. 



No American publisher has issued a book re- 

 lating to Ceylon. The administrative offices at 

 Colombo issue The Blue Book of Ceylon annu- 

 ally ; it may be secured by application. Humph- 

 rey's Travels East of Suez, published in 1915, 

 may be ordered through city booksellers. 



CHAD, LAKE, also spelled TCHAD, a large 

 lake lying between the Sudan and the Sahara 

 Desert of North Africa. Within recent years 

 it has greatly shrunk in size, but it is still 

 a very large volume of water, covering an area 

 of nearly 40,000 square miles about as large 

 as the state of Ohio. In extremely dry seasons 

 it has been known to cover only about half 

 that area, a'nd in certain sections towns nor- 

 mally on its shores may be twenty miles away 

 from the water. Although the lake is supposed 

 to have been known to the ancients and is 

 referred to by Ptolemy, it was first visited 

 by white people in 1823. There are many 

 islands, most of them inhabited by bands of 

 pirates who live by pillaging the native tribes 

 living on the shores. The territory at the east- 

 ern end of the lake is fertile; that on the west 

 is a desolate sand-strewn desert. The waters 

 of the lake and the rivers- Shari and Yeu, which 

 flow into it, abound with crocodiles, fish of 

 many kinds and turtles. 



