432 



SCIENCES AND SOCIAL ARTS. 



[PART IV. 



the destruction of animal life, taught its multitudinous 

 votaries to subsist exclusively upon vegetable food. 

 Hence the planting of gardens, the diffusion of fruit- 

 trees and leguminous vegetables 1 , the sowing of dry 

 grain 2 , the formation of reservoirs and canals, and the 

 reclamation of land " in situations favourable for irri- 

 gation." 



It is impossible to over-estimate the importance of 

 this system of water cultivation, especially in the north of 

 Ceylon, a country subject to periodical droughts. From 

 physical and geological causes, the mode of cultivation 

 in that section of the island at the present day differs 

 essentially from that practised in the southern division ; 

 and whilst in the latter the frequency of rains and the 

 abundance of rivers afford a copious supply of water, 

 the rest of the district is mainly dependent upon artificial 

 irrigation, and on the quantity of rain collected in tanks ; 

 or of water diverted from streams and directed into 

 reservoirs. 



As has been elsewhere 3 explained, the mountain 

 ranges that tower along the south-western coast, 

 and extend far towards the eastern, serve in both 

 monsoons to intercept the trade winds and condense 

 the vapours with which they are charged, thus ensuring 

 to those regions a plentiful supply of rain. Hence the 

 harvests in those portions of the island are regulated by 

 the two monsoons, the yalla being gathered in May and 

 the maha in November ; and seed-time in both is adjusted 

 so as to take advantage of the copious showers that fall 

 at those periods. 



But in the northern portions of Ceylon, owing to the 

 absence of mountains, this natural resource cannot be 

 relied on. The winds in both monsoons traverse the 

 island without parting with a sufficiency of moisture; 



1 Beans, designated by the term of 

 Sfasd in the jMahawanso, were grown 

 in the second century before Christ, 

 ch. xxiii. p. 140. 



2 The "cultivation of a crop of hill 

 rice" is mentioned in the Mahau-anso, 

 B.C. 77, ch. xxxiv. p. 208. 



3 See Vol. I. Part i. ch. ii. p. 67. 



