44 



PHYSICAL GEOGEAniY. 



[Part T. 



tering Palks Bay to tlie north of Ceylon ; bnt the main 

 stream keeping invariably to the east of the island, 

 runs with a velocity of from one and a half to two 

 miles an hour, and after passing the Great Bass, it keeps 

 its course seaward. At other times, after the monsoon 



has spent its violence, the 

 current is weak, and follows 

 the hue of the land to the 

 Avestward as far as Point-de- 

 Galle, or even to Colombo. 



In the south-west monsoon 

 the current changes its direc- 

 tion ; and, although it flows 

 steadily to the northward, its 

 action is very irregular and 

 unequal till it reaches the Co- 

 romandel coast, after passing Ceylon. Tliis is accounted 

 for by the obstruction opposed by the headlands of 

 Ceylon, which so intercept the stream that the current, 

 which might otherwise set into the Gulf of Manaar, takes 

 a south-easterly direction by Galle and Donedra Head.^ 



There being no lakes in Ceylon^, in the still waters 

 of wliicli the rivers might clear themselves of the earthy 

 matter swept along in their rapid course from the hills, 

 they arrive at the beach laden with sand and alluvium, 

 and at their junction with the ocean being met 

 transversely by the gulf-streams, the sand and soil 

 with which they are laden, instead of being carried out 

 to sea, are heaped up in bars along the shores, and 

 these, being augmented by similar deposits held in 



CURRENT IN THE S.W. MONSOON. 



' For an accoimt of the ciuTents 

 of Ceylon, see Horsbukgh's Direc- 

 tions for Sailing to and from the JEast 

 Indies, Sj-c, vol. i. p. 510, 530, 580 ; 

 Keith Johnston's Physical Atlas, 

 plate xiii. p. 50. 



^ Pliny alludes to a lake in Ceylon 

 of vast dimensions, but it is clear 

 that his informants must have spoken 



of one of the huge tanks for the 

 purpose of irrigation. Some of the 

 Mappe-mondes of the Middle Ages 

 place a lake in the middle of the 

 island, with a city inhabited by 

 astrologers ; but they have merely 

 reproduced the error of earlier geo- 

 gTaphers. (Santakem, C'osnio(/, tom, 

 iii. p. 336.) 



