72 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



[PART I. 



year's continuance ; and rain, when it falls, is so speedily 

 absorbed, that it renders but slight service to cultivation. 

 This is carried on entirely by means of tanks and 

 artificial irrigation, in the practice of which the Tamil 

 population of this district exhibits singular perseverance 

 and ingenuity. 1 In the dry season, when scarcely any 

 verdure is discernible above ground, the sheep and 

 goats feed on their knees scraping away the sand, in 

 order to reach the wiry and succulent roots of the 

 grasses. From the constancy of this practice horny 

 callosities are produced, by which these hardy creatures 

 may be distinguished. 



Water-spouts are frequent on the coast of Ceylon, 

 owing to the different temperature of the currents of air 

 passing across the heated earth and the cooler sea, but 

 instances are very rare of their bursting over land, or of 

 accidents in consequence. 2 



A curious phenomenon, to which the name of " an- 

 thelia" has been given, and which may probably have 

 suggested to the early painters the idea of the glory 

 surrounding the heads of beatified saints, is to be seen in 

 singular beauty, at early morning, in Ceylon. When the 

 light is intense, and the shadows proportionately dark 

 when the sun is near the horizon, and the shadow of a 

 person walking is thrown on the dewy grass each par- 

 ticle of dew furnishes a double reflection from its concave 



1 For an account of the Jaffna 

 wells, and the theory of their supply 

 with fresh water, see ch. i. p. 21. 



2 CAMOENS, who had opportunities 

 of observing the phenomena of these 

 seas during his service on board the 

 fleet of Cabral, off the coast of Ma- 

 labar and Ceylon, has introduced 

 into the Lusiad the episode of a 

 water-spout in the Indian Ocean ; 

 but, under the belief that the water 

 which descends had been previously 

 drawn up by suction from the ocean, 

 he exclaims: 



" But say, ye sages, who can weigh the cause, 

 And trace the secret springs of Nature's laws 

 Kay why the wave, of bitter brine erewhile, 

 Should to the bosom of the deep recoil. 



Robbed of its salt, and from the cloud distil, 

 Sweet as the waters of the limpid rill ? " 



(Book v.) 



But the truth appears to be that the 

 torrent which descends from a water- 

 spout, is but the condensed accumu- 

 lation of its own vapour, and, though 

 in the hollow of the lower cone which 

 rests upon the surface of the sea, salt 

 water may possibly ascend in the 

 partial vacuum caused by revolution ; 

 or spray may be caught up and col- 

 lected by the wind, still these can- 

 not be raised by it beyond a very 

 limited height, and what Camoens 

 saw descend was, as he truly says, 

 the sweet water distilled from the 

 cloud. 



