PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



[Part I. 



From age to age a scene so lovely has imparted a 

 colouring of romance to the adventures of the seamen 

 who, in the eagerness of commerce, swept round the 

 shores of India, to bring back the pearls and precious 

 stones, the cinnamon and odours, of Ceylon. The tales 

 of the Arabians are fraught with the wonders of 

 " Serendib ; " and the mariners of the Persian Gulf have 

 left a record of their dehght in reaching the calm 

 havens of the island, and reposing for months together 

 in valleys where the waters of the sea were overshadowed 

 by woods, and the gardens were blooming m perennial 

 summer.^ 



Geographical Position. — Notwithstanding the fact 

 that tiie Hindus, in their system of the universe, had 

 given prominent importance to Ceylon, their first 

 meridian, " the merichan of Lanka," being supposed to 

 pass over the island, they propounded the most extra- 

 vagant ideas, both as to its position and extent ; expand- 

 ing it to the proportions of a continent, and at the 

 same time placing it a considerable distance south-east of 

 India.2 



The native Buddhist historians, unable to confirm 

 the exaggerations of the Brahmans, and yet reluctant 

 to detract from the epic renown of their country by dis- 

 claiming its stupendous dimensions, attempted to re- 

 concile its actual extent with the fables of the 

 eastern astronomers by imputing to the agency of 

 earthquakes the submersion of vast regions by the 

 sea.^ But evidence is wantinsj to corroborate the asser- 



^ Eeinaud, Rclatimi des Voyages 

 Arahes, &c., dims le nermeme siecle. 

 Paris, 1845, torn. ii. p. 129. 



- For a condensed accoimt of tlie 

 dimensions and position attributed to 

 Lanka, in tlie ]\rytliic Astronomy of 

 the Hindus, see IIeinaud's Introduc- 

 tion to AhouJfeda, sec. iii. p. ccxvii., 

 and his Ilemoire sitr VInde, p. 342 ; 

 AVilford's Essay on the Sacred Isles 



of the West, Asiat. Researclies, vol. x. 

 p. 140. 



^ Sir Willtam Joxes adopted tlie 

 legendary opinion that Ceylon "for- 

 merly, perhaps, extended much far- 

 ther to the west and south, so as to 

 include Lanka or the equinoctial 

 point of the Indian astronomers." — 

 Discourse on the Institution of a 

 Society for inqiiiriny into the History, 



