CEYLOX. 119 



it is separated by a channel about 40 miles wide. The 

 area of the island is 25,365 square miles. The population 

 amounted in 1901 to 3,565,954, or 141 to the square 

 mile. It has increased by 29 per cent, between the years 

 1881 and 1901, which is a considerably higher percentage 

 than that of the United Kingdom. The cultivated area is 

 estimated at about one-sixth of the total area. There is a 

 considerable amount of European enterprise in the shape of 

 the cultivation of cott'ee, cinchona, tea, cocoa, cocoanuts and 

 rubber. The cultivation of coffee has considerably decreased, 

 on account of disease, and that of tea increased. 



Tlie principal topographical feature of the island is a high 

 tableland equidistant from the eastern and western coasts 

 and rising to an elevation of 7,000 feet. This tableland is 

 surrounded on the east, south and west by a range of hills 

 averaging 3,000 to 4,000 feet in height. The rest of the 

 island is mostly low land, especially to the south, east and 

 north of the central plateau. 



Ceylon has two wet monsoons, the south-western and 

 north-eastern, the former coming in summer and the latter 

 in late autumn. In consequence, the distribution of the 

 rain is very peculiar, there being a dry, a hill and a moist 

 zone, the rainfall ranging between 33 and 149 inches. 



About 1,000 years ago Ceylon appears to have been 

 inhabited by a large and powerful nation. At that time 

 the greater part of the island seems to have been cultivated. 

 Afterwards the population decreased very considera])l3', and 

 tlie larger part of the area relapsed into jungle ; hence the 

 forests now remaining are a second growth and not genuine 

 primeval forests. At the time of the British occupation in 

 1796 practically the whole island was covered with forest. 

 Since then, great clearances have been made, and it is difficult 

 to say to what the area of the forests now remaining amounts. 



The number of species found in Ceylon is very great. The 

 local consumption of big timber is small, except in Colombo, 

 Galle and Kandy. On the other hand, there has been for 



