CiiAr. I.] 



LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE. 



II 



Latitude and Longitude. — There has hitherto been 

 considerable uncertainty as to the position assigned to 

 Ceylon in the various maps and geographical notices of 

 the island : these have been corrected by more recent 

 observations, and its true place has been ascertained 

 to be between 5° 55' and 9'' hV north latitude, and 

 79° 41' 40" and 81° 54' 50" east longitude. Its ex- 

 treme length from north to south, from Point Pal- 

 mjTa to Dondera Head, is 271 J miles ; it greatest width 

 137^ miles, from Colombo on the west coast to Sange- 

 mankande on the east ; and its area, including its de- 

 pendent islands, 25,742 miles, or about one-sixth smaller 

 than Ireland.^ 



to tlie opposite opinion, and Kant 

 undertook to prove tliat Taprobane 

 was Madagascar. 



' Down to a A'ery recent period no 

 British colony was more imperfectly 

 sm-veved and mapped than Ceylon ; 

 but since the recent publication by 

 AiTOwsmith of the great map by 

 General Fraser, the reproach has 

 been withdrawn, and no dependency 

 of the Crown is more richly provided 

 in this particular. In the map of 

 Schneider, the Government engineer 

 in 1813, two-thirds of the Kandyan 

 Kingdom are a blank ; and in that of 

 the Society for the Diffusion of 

 Knowledge, re-published so late as 

 1852, the rich districts of Neuera-kala- 

 wa and the Wanny, in which there are 

 innumerable villages (and scarcely a 

 hill), are marked as " ituknoicn moun- 

 tainous reyion.'''' General Fraser, 

 after the devotion of a lifetime to 

 the labom", has produced a sui-vey 

 which, in extent and minuteness of 

 detail, stands unrivalled. In this 

 gi'eat work he had the co-operation of 

 Major Skinuer and of Captain Gall- 

 Avey, and to these two gentlemen the 

 public are indebted for the greater 

 portion of the field-work and the tri- 

 gonometrical operations. To judge 

 of the difficulties which beset such 

 an midertaking, it must be borne in 

 mind that till very recently travelling 

 in the interior of Ceylon was all but 



impracticable, in a country unopened 

 even by bridle roads, across un- 

 bridged rivers, over moimtains ne^er 

 ta-od by the foot of a European, 

 and amidst precipices inaccessible to 

 all but the most courageous and pru- 

 dent. Add to this that the comitry 

 is densely covered with forest and 

 jungle, "w-itli trees a hundred feet 

 high, from which here and there the 

 branches had to be cleared to ob- 

 tain a sight of the signal stations. 

 The triangidation was carried on 

 amidst privations, discomfort, and 

 pestilence, which frequently prostrat- 

 ed the whole partj', and forced tlieir 

 attendants to desert them rather than 

 encounter such hardships and peril. 

 The materials collected by the col- 

 leagues of General Fraser under these 

 discom-agements have been worked 

 up by him with consummate skill and 

 perseverance. The base line, five 

 and a quarter miles in length, was 

 measured in 1845 in the cinnamon 

 plantation at Kaderani, to the north 

 of Colombo, and its exti-emities are 

 still marked by two towers, which it 

 was necessary to raise to the height 

 of one himdred feet, to enable them 

 to be discerned above the surround- 

 ing forests. These it is to be hoped 

 will be carefully kept from decay, as 

 they may again be called into requi- 

 sition. 



As regards the sea line of Ceylon, 



