( 425 ) 

 XI. 



REMARKS ON SOME ANTIQUITIES 

 On the west and SOUTH COASTS of CETLON^ 



WRITTEN IX THE YEAR I796. 



By captain COLIN MCKENZIE. 



'T~^HE ifland of Ceylon^ Selan-dive^ or Seran-d'iep^ fup- 

 ^ pofed to be the Lanka of the Ramayan (though 

 fome Hindus affign it another lituation) would naturally 

 fuggeft fome enquiry to the curious in Indian refearch 

 with fo favourable an opportunity as its late reduflion 

 to our power: and though a few months paflTed on its 

 weftern coaft, employed on objetts of a very different 

 nature, could not permit much obfervation (even if 

 poffelTed of talents more adequate to the tafl^) yet a de- 

 fire of promoting the interelting objeds recommended 

 by the fociety, by pointing out to the curious in tbefe 

 purfuits fome remains of Hindu antiquity on the fouth 

 and weftern coafts of this ifland, which have cafually 

 fallen under my notice, tempts me to fubmit the follow- 

 ing remarks to their confideration. 



It may not be altogether foreign to this fubjeft, as 

 connected with the traditionary accounts of the reccf- 

 fion of the fea at fome remote period from thefe coafts, 

 to remark fome of thofe appearances v.'hich moft forci- 

 bly ftrike anobferver, travelling for near five hundred 

 miles along the low flat country of the lower Caniatick; 

 which in many places furnilhes evident marks of its 

 having been at one time covered by the fea, in the ma- 

 rine produ6lious difcovered in digging; the fea fhells 

 which are incorporated in the calcareous ftones appa- 

 rently 



