252 TWO TEAKS IN THE JUNGLE. 



animals is here forcibly brought to mind. Although the tiger is a 

 good swimmer and has been known to swim Singapore Strait, which 

 is over a mile wide, he has never crossed from the mainland of 

 India into Ceylon, even though the Paumben Passage is not (if I 

 remember rightly) more than a hundred yards in ^idth at its nar- 

 rowest j)art. Although Felis tigris is common throughout nearly 

 the whole of Southern Asia, Sumatra, and Java, it has never existed 

 in Ceylon. It certainly was not the width of the strait which hin- 

 dered its immigration, and the inhabitants of Ceylon have to thank 

 their lucky stars that the two long arms which in reaUty connect 

 the island and the peninsula, are barren wastes of sand instead of 

 being covered with thick jungle. Had there been sufficient vege- 

 tation upon them to afford cover for the tiger, or encourage his mi- 

 gration, there is no doubt that the island would now be infested by 

 these dangerous beasts. 



About two o'clock in the afternoon we left Paumben, passed 

 close to DeKt Island, and also Middleburg, and at sunset sighted 

 Jaffna. The water was so shallow that oxu' little steamer was 

 obliged to anchor about five miles from the town. The next morn- 

 ing I went ashore with Caj^tain Wellesley in the cutter, and took 

 up quai'ters in the traveller's bungalow, or rest house, as these 

 valuable institutions are universally called in Ceylon. 



Half an hour' after landing, I visited the fish-market, a wide open 

 shed down on the beach with the bare gi-ound for a floor. It was 

 not the time of day for fish, and I found only a lot of large and 

 beautifully colored crabs [Lupea sanguinolenta), and about a hundred 

 specimens of the common cuttle-fish [Sfjna officinalis), sometimes 

 called the ink fish, which furnishes the sepia water color of com- 

 merce, as w^ell as the cuttle-fish bone so indispensable to ourcanaiy- 

 birds. The bone in question is the only skeleton the animal possesses, 

 and fonns the back of the animal's body, being covered onlj' with 

 a thin skin. The ink with which this cuttle-fish beclouds the water 

 when attacked by an enemy is secreted in a gland near the head, and 

 is dischai'ged with considei'able force in time of danger so that the 

 animal is instantly enveloped in a murky cloud. The sepia is veiy 

 abundant around Jaffna, scores of them being brought in daily ; so 

 it seems that the natives not only eat them, but are fond of them. 

 Some of the specimens I obtained were a foot in lengtL 



The morning after my anival in Jaffna, I hired a small boat, 

 two boatmen and a diver, and made ready for a cruise in search of 

 coral. Before starting, I undertook to tell the men what we were 



