INTRODUCTION. 



THE island of Ceylon is situated between 5 deg. 51 min. and 

 9 deg. 51 min. north latitude, and between 79 deg. 41 min. 40 

 sec. and 81 deg. 54 min. 50 sec. east longitude, and has an 

 a.'ea of about 25.000 square miles. 



The southern portion of the Island consists of an interior 

 mountainous region, surrounded by a low coast line of from 

 thirty to eighty miles in width. The mountain zone covers 

 an area of about four thousand miles. The highest mountain is 

 Piduru Talagala, or Pedrotallagalla 8,295 feet. The rivers in 

 this region are bordered by a dense growth of forest, and diver- 

 sified with innumerable cascades and rapids, flowing through 

 deep chasms, whose rocky walls furnish admirable conditions for 

 fern growth, where they grow on the rocks and trees, especially 

 in the Central and Southern Provinces. The northern portion of 

 the Island forms a vast unbroken plain. 



The summits of the highest ridges are covered with verdure, 

 and the slopes were formerly covered with forests of lofty trees, 

 which have rapidly disappeared under the ax of the coffee 

 planter. 



Newera Ellia Plain is at an elevation of about 6,200 feet ; the 

 Horton Plains, 7,000 feet, and Kandy, in the Central Province, 

 is 1,727 feet. 



The climate of the Island is regulated by the monsoons. The 

 southwest monsoon prevails along the southwest coast in the 

 early summer; the northeast monsoon reaches the northeast coast 

 about October or November. The former drives the clouds 

 against the lofty mountains of the south and west, supplying 

 copious rains, which do not reach the eastern and northern por- 



