576 



NATURE 



{Oct. 12, 1882 



My visit to Matura was made at his request, and the re- 

 ception he gave me was kind and flattering in the extreme. 

 He insisted on driving me to Dondera. His carriage, a 

 well-appointed English phaeton, was drawn by two fine 

 horses of Australian breed. A handsome black Tamil in 

 a red turban and silver-laced livery, ran before us all the 

 way. . . . 



" The long blue peninsula of Dondera Head, with its 

 forests of cocoa palms, is visible on the road from Matura 

 long before it is reached. It is the most southerly point 

 of Ceylon, lying at 5 56' N. latitude. For more than 

 2000 years the temples erected on this spot have been 

 the object of pilgrimages, only second in fame to those 

 to Adam's Peak. Thousands of pilgrims and devotees 

 flock here every year, and the temples have been dedi- 

 cated alternately to Buddha or Vishnu, according as the 

 native Singhalese or the Malabar invaders had the upper 

 hand. Three hundred years ago, the chief temple was 

 an Indian building of the first rank, so large, that from 

 the sea it appeared a considerable town ; its numerous 

 pillars and statues were richly decorated with gold and 

 precious stones. In 15S7 all this magnificence was de- 

 stroyed by the Portuguese, who carried off the rich spoils 

 of the interior of the temple. The enormous extent of 

 the building may be estimated by the ruins which remain. 

 In one corner a very large Dagoba has been left standing 

 close to several ancient and colossal Bo-gas or sacred 

 fig-trees. The ruins of a smaller temple are to be seen 

 on the narrow tongue of land which forms the extreme 

 southern point of Dondera Cape. They consist of octa- 

 gon pillars of porphyry, rising in lonely desolation from 

 the granite rock, and washed by the foaming surf which 

 surrounds it. At low tide I collected many curious 

 marine animals in the natural basins among these rocks, 

 and sat for a long time lost in thought upon this, the 

 most southerly point I had ever reached. It was late in 

 the evening before we returned to Matura. The follow- 

 ing day (January 19) was dedicated to a long marine 

 excursion. The chief, Ilaugakuhn, had placed a capital 

 sailing canoe at my service, and my trip extended a long 

 way to the south of Dondera Head It was glorious 

 summer weather, and the north-west monsoon blew so 

 strong that it was all my boatmen could do to keep the 

 canoe from capsizing. Our speed was almost equal to 

 that of a powerful steamer. No better illustration could 

 have been found of the ease with which the narrow Sing- 

 halese canoes cut through the waves, or rather, glide 

 over their crests. As the island receded from our gaze, 

 we had a lovely view of the blue mountain masses, 

 crowned by Adam's Peak, rising from the palm forests of 

 the plains. 



" After about four hours of this rapid sailing we became 

 aware of a broad bright streak on the surface of the 

 ocean, extending in the direction of the monsoon, from 

 north-west to south-east, and about a mile wide. I pro- 

 nounced it at once to be a pelagic stream or current, one 

 of those narrow ocean rivers which frequently occur both 

 in the Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, and which owe 

 their origin to the amalgamation of huge shoals of marine 

 animals. As we drew nearer, my surmise proved correct, 

 and I was rewarded with an extraordinarily abundant and 

 interesting capture. A dense mass of pelagic animals, in 

 endless variety, besides numerous larvae of worms, star- 

 fish, crabs, molluscs, &c, swam hither and hither, and 

 all the vessels I had with me were speedily filled. I only 

 regretted not to have brought enough to contain speci- 

 mens of all these zoological treasures, among which were 

 many rare and hitherto undescribed varieties. I returned 

 to Matura late in the evening, richly laden with booty, 

 which would provide me with interesting work for many 

 years to come. It was a pleasant reminiscence of the 

 fifth 'degree of north latitude. My Singhalese were so 

 skilful in taking advantage of the monsoon, that we re- 

 turned almost as quickly as we had gone, and landed 



safely at the mouth of the River Nil wella. The view of 

 this delta from the sea is very picturesque, and both 

 banks of the river are thickly wooded. I went up the 

 stream in a canoe on the next day, and was filled with 

 fresh wonder at the unexampled luxuriance of the forest 

 vegetation. 



"A melancholy task awaited me on my return to Belli- 

 gam. I had to bid farewell to the spot on which I had 

 spent six of the happiest and most interesting weeks of 

 my life. The impression of this parting is as vivid in my 

 mind as if it were still to come. The familiar room which 

 had serve i me for parlour, bedroom, and study, for labora- 

 tory, museum, and painting-room, with all the pleasant 

 memories that had centred in it, was empty and bare. 

 In front of the house, under the great teak tree, stood the 

 two bullock-carts laden with my thirty chests of speci- 

 mens, &c. Beyond the garden-gate were ranged row upon 

 row of the brown villagers watching the departure of the 

 stranger who had been so great an object of curiosity and 

 amazement to them all these weeks. I took leave per- 

 sonally of the two chiefs and of all the more important 

 inhabitants of the village. Good old Socrates, with 

 sorrowful mien, produced for the last time the best of his 

 bananas and mangoes, annonas and cashu-nuts. For 

 the last time Babua climbed my favourite palm to offer 

 me one more draught of sweet, cool cocoa milk. Hardest 

 of all was the parting with my faithful Ganymede. The 

 poor lad wept bitterly, and earnestly begged me to take 

 him with me to Europe. It was in vain that I sought to 

 persuade him, as I had often done before, that this was 

 impossible, and that he could not live in our icy climate 

 and beneath our grey skies. He clung fast round my 

 knees, and assured me that he was ready to follow me 

 anywhere without hesitation. I was obliged at last to 

 disengage myself almost by force, and mount my vehicle. 

 As I waved a last adieu to my dark-skinned friends, I had 

 all the feeling of Paradise Lost — ' Schoner Edelstein ! 

 Bella Gemma !'" 



THE SANITARY INSTITUTE 



ONE of the first objects which the Sanitary Institute 

 of Great Britain has set itself to accomplish is the 

 diffusion throughout the country of such information as 

 shall lead to increased knowledge concerning the laws ct 

 health, and to an improvement in the conditions under 

 which people live. Amongst the means by which it is 

 sought to attain this object at each annual congress, is 

 the delivery of public addresses in the several sections. 

 This course was, as usual, followed at Newcastle-on- 

 Tyne, and many of the addresses contained matter of 

 much interest. 



Dr. Embleton as a resident in the borough visited by 

 the Institute, referred to such measures as had been 

 adopted in Newcastle to secure greater cleanliness 

 of air and water. He deplored the manner in which air 

 was still contaminated by the products of the combustion 

 of coal in the large manufacturing districts ; he vividly 

 described the conditions resulting from the constant in- 

 halation of the solid and gaseous matter contained in 

 smoke, and having reference to some of the principal 

 local trades, he explained how hurtful from an economical 

 point of view was the diffusion into the atmosphere of the 

 valuable, unburnt, and therefore wasted carbon, the car- 

 bonic acid and oxide, the sulphurous acid, and the fumes 

 of hydrochloric acid, of lead, copper, arsenic, and other 

 vapours. Looking hopefully into the future, and antici- 

 pating that with the growth of knowledge in matters 

 relating to health, there would also come a material 

 increase in the duration of human life, he sought to give 

 some estimate of the normal length of the life of man. 

 Accepting the rule laid down by Buffon and Fleurens that 

 the full term of normal life is dependent upon the age at 

 which growth is completed, he pointed out that according 



