CHAP. L] FOLIAGE AND VERDURE. 5 



rocks, which in their resistless upheaval have rent the 

 superincumbent strata, raising them into lofty pyramids 

 and crags, or hurling them in gigantic fragments to the 

 plains below. Time and decay are slow in their assaults 

 on these towering precipices and splintered pinnacles ; 

 and from the absence of more perishable materials, there 

 are few graceful sweeps along the higher chains, or roll- 

 ing downs injhe lower ranges of the hills. Every bold 

 elevation is crowned by battlemented cliffs, and flanked 

 by chasms in which the shattered strata are seen as 

 sharp and as rugged as if they had but recently under- 

 gone the grand convulsion that displaced them. 



Foliage and Verdure. The soil in these regions is 

 consequently light and unremunerative. But the plentiful 

 moisture arising from the interception of every passing 

 vapour from the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal, 

 added to the intense warmth of the atmosphere, com- 

 bine to force a vegetation so rich and luxuriant, that 

 imagination can picture nothing more wondrous and 

 charming ; every level spot is enamelled with verdure, 

 forests of never-fading bloom cover mountain and valley ; 

 flowers of the brightest hues grow in profusion over the 

 plains, and delicate climbing plants, rooted in the shelving 

 rocks, hang in graceful festoons down the edge of every 

 precipice. 



Unlike the forests of Europe, in which the excess of 

 some peculiar trees imparts a character of monotony 

 to the outline and graveness to the colouring, the forests 

 of Ceylon are singularly attractive from the endless variety 

 of their foliage, and the vivid contrast of its tints. The 

 mountains, especially those looking towards the east and 

 south, rise abruptly to prodigious and almost precipitous 

 heights above the level plains ; the rivers wind through 

 woods below like threads of silver through green em- 

 broidery, till they are lost in a dim haze which conceals 

 the far horizon ; and through this a line of tremulous light 

 marks where the sunbeams are glittering among the waves 

 upon the distant shore. 



B 3 



