PHYSICAL GEOGKAPIIY. 



[PART I. 



Still in the infancy of geographical knowledge, and 

 before Ceylon had been circumnavigated by Europeans, 

 the mythical delusions of the Hindus were transmitted 

 to the West, and the dimensions of the island were 

 expanded till its southern extremity fell below the 

 equator, and its breadth was prolonged till it touched 

 alike on Africa and China. 1 



The Greeks who, after the Indian conquests of Alex- 

 ander, brought back the earliest accounts of the East, 

 repeated them without material correction, and re- 

 ported the island to be nearly twenty times its actual 

 extent. Onesicritus, a pilot of the expedition, assigned 

 to it a magnitude of 5000 stadia, equal to 500 geogra- 

 phical miles. 2 Eratosthenes attempted to fix its posi- 

 tion, but went so widely astray that his first (that is his 

 most southern) parallel passed through it and the 

 " Cinnamon Land," the Regio Cinnamomifera, on the 

 east coast of Africa, 3 He placed Ceylon at the distance 

 of seven days' sail from the south of India, and he too 

 assigned to its western coast an extent of 5000 stadia. 4 

 Both those authorities are quoted by Strabo, who says 

 that the size of Taprobaue was not less than that of 

 Britain. 5 



found in Ceylon but not existing 

 in India are alluded to at p. 178, 

 and Dr. A. GITXTHER, in a paper 

 on the Geographical Distribution of 

 Reptiles, in the Mag. of Nat. Hist. 

 for March, 1859, says, " amongst these 

 larger islands winch are connected 

 with the middle palaeotropical region, 

 none offers forms so different from the 

 continent and other islands as Ceylon. 

 It might be considered the Mada- 

 gascar of the Indian region. "We not 

 only find there peculiar genera and 

 species, not again to be recognised in 

 other parts ; but even many of the 

 common species exhibit such remark- 

 able varieties, as to afford ample 

 means for creating new nominal 

 species," p. 280. The difference ex- 

 hibited between the insects of Cey- 

 lon and those of Hindustan and the 



Dekkan are noticed by Mr. Walker 

 in the present work, p. ii. ch. vii. vol. 

 i. p. 270. See on this subject HIT- 

 TER'S Erdkunde, vol. iv. p. 17. 



1 GIBBON, ch. xxiv. 



2 STRABO, lib. v. ARTEMIDORTTS 

 (100 B.C.), quoted by STEPHANA of 

 BYZANTIUM, gives " to Ceylon a 

 length of 7000 stadia and a "breadth 

 of 500. 



3 STRABO, lib. ii. c. i. s. 14. 



4 The text of Strabo showing this 

 measure makes it in some places 

 8000 (Strabo, lib. v.) ; and Pliny, 

 quoting ERATOSTHENES, makes it 

 7000. 



5 STRABO, lib. ii. c. v. s. 32. Aris- 

 totle appears to have had more cor- 

 rect information, and says Ceylon 

 was not so large as Britain. De 

 Mundo, ch, iii. 



