432 



SCIENCES AND SOCIAL ARTS. 



[Part IV- 



the destruction of animal life, taught its multitudinous 

 votaries to subsist exclusively upon vegetable food. 

 Hence the planting of gardens, the diffusion of fruit- 

 trees and leguminous vegetables \ the sowing of dry 

 grain ^, the formation of reservoks and canals, and the 

 reclamation of land " in situations favourable for irri- 

 gation." 



It is impossible to over-estimate the importance of 

 this system of water cultivation, in a country -like the 

 north of Ceylon, subject to periodical droughts. From 

 physical and geological causes, the mode of cultivation 

 in that section of the island differs essentially from that 

 practised in the southern division; and whilst in the 

 latter the frequency of the rains and abundance of 

 rivers afford a copious supply of water, the rest of the 

 country is mainly dependent upon artificial irrigation, 

 and on the quantity of rain collected in tanks ; or of 

 water diverted from streams and directed into reser- 

 voks. 



As has been elsewhere ^ explained, the mountain 

 ranges which tower along the south-western coast, 

 and extend far towards the eastern, serve in both 

 monsoons to intercept the trade winds and condense 

 the vapours with which they are charged, thus ensuring 

 to those regions a plentiful supply of rain. Hence the 

 harvests in those portions of the island are regulated by 

 the two monsoons, .the yalla in May and the maha in 

 November ; and seed-time is adjusted so as to take 

 advantage of the copious showers which fall at those 

 periods. 



But in the northern portions of Ceylon, owing to the 

 absence of mountains, this natural resource cannot be 

 rehed on. The winds in both monsoons traverse the 

 island without parting with a sufficiency of moisture ; 



^ Beans, designated by the term of 

 3fasu in tlie 3Iahawanso, were grown 

 in the second century before Christ, 

 ell. xxiii, p. liO. 



^ The " cultivation of a crop of hill 

 rice" is mentioned in the Mahawanso, 

 B.C. 77, ch. xxxiv. p. 208. 



=* See Vol. I. Part i. ch. ii. p. 67. 



