THE PHYSICAL FEATURES 



Province. There is not much to be said about this as 

 a sporting province ; it is full of game, but the country 

 generally is not open, something like the Northern Province. 

 The narrow strip in the extreme north of the province 

 used to be fine sporting country at one time, and it now 

 adjoins the Wilachiya game sanctuary. The coast-line 

 abounds in water-fowl in the season, and the grey partridge 

 may be found north of Puttalam. Three main roads meet 

 at Puttalam, the principal town, one, a coach road, from 

 Colombo via the coast, one from Kurunegala, and one 

 from Anuradhapura. Puttalam is a great salt-producing 

 centre, by means of saltpans and evaporation, in the vast 

 mud and sand flats along the coast. The province is mostly 

 flat and heavily forest-covered, but gets hilly towards the 

 east side and near Kurunegala. It is fairly full of elephants, 

 and there is fine snipe shooting in the season, besides the 

 usual pigeons and jungle fowl. Parts of it get a fair 

 amount of rain in both monsoons, but otherwise water 

 supply is precarious. The new northern railway runs 

 through the middle of the eastern half of the province. 



The Western Province is densely populated, and offers 

 no shooting grounds except for snipe and water-fowl along 

 the coast lagoons and paddy fields. The fishery along the 

 coast forms a great industry. Kalutara is a good snipe 

 shooting centre, and a railway from Colombo serves the 

 whole coast-line. 



The Province of Sabaragamuwa is of no use to sports- 

 men, though it is in places fairly full of elephants. It is 

 very mountainous, and all forest or scrub covered outside 

 of the village lands or estates. It is the great gemming 

 centre, 1 and Ratnapura town, the Agency, is a starting- 



1 Mining for gems has been carried on in this Province for centuries. 

 AUTHOR. 



83 



