12 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



[Part I. 



General Form. — In its general outline the island 

 resembles a pear— and suggests to its admiring in- 

 habitants the figure of those pearls which from their 



elongated form are suspended 

 from the tapering end. When 

 originally upheaved above the 

 ocean its shape was in all pro- 

 bability nearly circular, with a 

 prolongation in the direction of 

 north-east. The mountain zone 

 in the south, covering an area 

 of about 4212 miles \ may then 

 have formed the largest propor- 

 tion of its entke area — and the 

 belt of low lands, known as the 

 Maritime Provinces, consists to a great extent of soil 

 from the disintegration of the gneiss, detritus from the 

 hiUs, alluvium carried down the rivers, and marine de- 

 posits gradually collected on the shore. But in addi- 

 tion to these, the land has for ages been slowly rising 

 from the sea, and terraces abounding in marine shells 

 imbedded in agglutinated sand occur in situations far 

 above high-water mark. Immediately inland from Point 

 de Galle, the surface soil rests on a stratum of decom- 

 posing coral ; and sea sheUs are found at a considerable 

 distance from the shore. Further north at Madampe, 

 between Chilaw and Negombo, the shells of pearl oysters 

 and other bivalves are turned up by the plough more 

 than ten miles from the sea. 



These recent formations present themselves in a still 

 more striking form in the north of the island, the greater 

 portion of wliich may be regarded as the conjoint pro- 



an admirable chart of the West coast, 

 from Adam's Bridge to Dondera Head, 

 has been published by the East India 

 Company from a survey in 1845. 

 But information is sadly wanted as to 

 the East and North, of which no 

 accurate charts exist, except of a few 



unconnected points, such as the har- 

 bour of Trincomalie. 



I This includes not only the lofty 

 mountains suitable for the cultivation 

 of cofl'ee, but the lower ranges and 

 spurs which connect them with the 

 maritime plains. 



