44 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



[PART I. 



CURRENT IN THE S. W. MO.NdOON. 



runs with a velocity of from one and a half to two 

 miles an hour, and after passing the Great Bass, its 

 course tends seaward. At other times, after the mon- 

 soon has spent its violence, 

 the current is weak, and 

 follows the line of the land 

 to the westward as far as 

 Point-de-Galle, or even to 

 Colombo. 



In the south-west monsoon 

 the current changes its direc- 

 tion ; and, although it flows 

 steadily to the northward, 

 along the east shore of the 

 Indian Peninsula, its action is very irregular and unequal 

 till it reaches the Coroniandel coast, after passing Ceylon. 

 This is accounted for by the obstruction opposed by 

 the headlands of Ceylon, which so intercept the stream 

 that the current, which might otherwise set into the Gulf 

 of Manaar, takes a south-easterly direction by Galle and 

 Dondera Head. 1 



There being no lakes in Ceylon 2 , in the still waters 

 of which the rivers might clear themselves of the earthy 

 matter swept along in their rapid course from the hills, 

 they arrive at the beach laden with sand and alluvium, 

 and at their junction with the ocean being met 

 transversely by the gulf-streams, the sand and soil 

 with which they are laden, instead of being carried 

 out to sea, are heaped up in bars along the shores. 

 These, augmented by similar deposits held in suspen- 



1 For an account of the currents 

 of Ceylon, see HORSBURGII'S Direc- 

 tions for Sailing to and from the East 

 Indies, $c., vol. i. p. 516, 536, 580 ; 

 KEITH JOHNSTON^ Physical Atlas, 

 plate xiii. p. 50. 



2 Pliny alludes to a lake in Ceylon 

 of vast dimensions, but it is clear 

 that his informants must have spoken 



of one of the huge tanks for the 

 purpose of irrigation. Some of the 

 Mftppc-mondes of the Middle Ages 

 place a lake in the middle of the 

 island, with a city inhabited by 

 astrologers ; but they have merely 

 reproduced the error of earlier geo- 

 graphers. (SANTAREM, Cosmog. torn, 

 iii. p. 336.) 



