CHAP. I.] 



LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE. 



11 



Latitude and Longitude. There has hitherto been 

 considerable uncertainty as to the position assigned to 

 Ceylon in various maps and geographical notices. These 

 have been corrected by more recent observations, and 

 its true place has been ascertained to be between 5 

 55' and 9 51' north latitude, and 79 41' 40" and 81 

 54' 50" east longitude. Its extreme length from north 

 to south, from Point Palmyra to Dondera Head, is 27 1^ 

 miles ; its greatest width 137J miles, from Colombo on 

 the west coast to Sangemankande on the east ; and its 

 area, including its dependent islands, 25,742 miles, or 

 about one-sixth smaller than Ireland. 1 



to the opposite opinion, and KANT 

 undertook to prove that Taprobane 

 was Madagascar. 



1 Down to a very recent period no 

 British colony was more imperfectly 

 survej-ed and mapped than Ceylon ; 

 but since the recent publication by 

 Arrowsmith of the great map by 

 General Fraser, the reproach has 

 been withdrawn, and no dependency 

 of the Crown is now more richly pro- 

 vided in this particular. In the map 

 of Schneider, the Government engi- 

 neer in 1813, two-thirds of the 

 Kandyan Kingdom" are a blank ; and 

 in that of the Society for the Diffusion 

 of Knowledge, re-published so late as 

 1852, the rich districts of Neuera-kala- 

 wa and the Wanny, in which there are 

 innumerable villages (and scarcely a 

 hill), are marked as an " unltHoirn 

 mountainous region. ' ' G eneral Fraser, 

 after the devotion of a lifetime to 

 the labour, has produced a survey 

 which, in extent and minuteness of 

 detail, stands unrivalled. In this 

 great work he had the co-operation of 

 Major Skinner and of Captain Gall- 

 wey, and to these two gentlemen the 

 public are indebted for the greater 

 portion of the field- work and the tri- 

 gonometrical operations. To judge 

 of the difficulties which beset such 

 an undertaking, it must be borne in 

 mind that till very recently travel- 

 ling in the interior was all but 



impracticable, in a country unopened 

 even by bridle-paths, across un- 

 bridged rivers, over mountains never 

 trod by the foot of a European, and 

 amidst precipices inaccessible to all 

 but the most courageous and pru- 

 dent. Add to this that the country 

 is densely covered by forests and 

 jungle, with trees a hundred feet 

 high, from which here and there the 

 branches had to be cleared to ob- 

 tain a sight of the signal stations. 

 The triangulation was carried on 

 amidst privations, discomfort, and 

 pestilence, which frequently prostrat- 

 ed the whole party, and forced their 

 attendants to desert them rather than 

 encounter such hardships and peril. 

 The materials collected by the col- 

 leagues of General Fraser under these 

 discouragements have been worked 

 up by him with consummate skill and 

 perseverance. The base line, five 

 and a quarter miles in length, was 

 measured in 1845 in the cinnamon 

 plantation at Kaderani, to the north 

 of Colombo, and its extremities are 

 still marked by two towers, which it 

 was necessary to raise to the height 

 of one hundred feet, to enable them 

 to be discerned above the surround- 

 ing forests. These it is to be hoped 

 will be carefully kept from decay, as 

 thoy may again be called into requi- 

 sition hereafter. 



As regards the sea line of Ceylon, 



