ADAM'S SECOND EDEN 
135 
ured ones that hide in the farthest and 
darkest jungles. 
A bare tree hanging full of strange 
black fruits proves to be only the sleep- 
ing place of a colony of "flying foxes," 
or huge bats, that fly by night and at 
sunrise grip a tree branch by one foot, 
fold their 24-inch-long wings, and, hang- 
ing head down, sleep the whole day away. 
the; footprints of buddha 
The railway carries one up to Hatton, 
4,141 feet above the sea, in the next 30 
miles, into the heart of the oldest tea dis- 
trict, that was a great coffee district be- 
fore the blight of 1870 ruined that great- 
est industry of the island. There is a 
splendid view of Adams Peak from Hat- 
ton, and one may drive across the hills 
all striped with round tea bushes, shaded 
by grevillea, or rubber trees, and follow- 
ing the banks of the beautiful Maskeliya 
reach the foot of the peak. Then comes 
a few miles on pony or chair, and after 
that serious climbing the last part a stiff 
pull up over sheer rock faces by the aid 
of heavy iron chains that have been there 
for ages. There is barely room for the 
tiny temple over the sacred footprint of 
the Buddha, 7,353 feet above the sea. 
Believers of three creeds have made 
the pilgrimage and met there for cen- 
turies without any discord or such un- 
seemly behavior as when two sects of 
Christians meet in Jerusalem. All aim to 
reach the summit at sunrise, when the 
great shadow of the peak is thrown upon 
the sky as at the Brocken and the view 
ranges far over Ceylon and to the ocean. 
The Buddhists believe that Gautama 
Buddha, who came to "Ceylon in a storm 
cloud, landed on this peak, and they 
celebrate that event every April, with the 
elaborate footprint in the solid rock the 
sufficient proof. The Hindus, or Tamils, 
believe that Siva stood there on the sum- 
mit when he stirred the sea with his tri- 
dent. The Mohammedans believe that 
Adam once stood there, and the Catholics 
have tradition of St. Thomas having vis- 
ited the peak. 
From Hatton the railway climbs an- 
other thousand feet in a run of 20 miles 
through a continuous tea district, all the 
hills cleared and planted in orderly rows 
of bushes, guarded by their attendant, 
thin-foliaged shade trees, and 50,000 
acres of tea bushes are always in sight 
from the train. Tea will thrive every- 
where from sea-level to 7,000 feet, but 
the best plantations are between 2,500 
and 4,500 feet above the sea. 
All land above 5,000 feet is now re- 
served as crown forest land, and ebony 
and many valuable woods are being re- 
planted after the centuries of spoliation. 
At Nanu Oya station one changes to a 
primitive, bone-breaking train of tram 
cars, the toy cars, and the absurd little 
vehicles jolt and rumble and threateii to 
buckle in air whenever the brakes are 
applied. The busy little engine pants up 
another thousand feet in the four miles 
and lands one at the great upland resort 
of Nuwara Eliya, "Nurelya" — as our 
English cousins shorten it in pronuncia- 
tion. 
This most ideal summer resort, 6,210 
feet above the sea, offers one grate fires 
every evening and morning and blankets 
every night, and meanwhile flowers 
bloom with California profusion in the 
many beautifui bungalows that surround 
the wide ellipse of a level valley, where 
club-houses, a race-course, and golf links 
minister to a Briton's necessities. The 
Governor has a summer home ; there are 
hospitals and sanatoriums. 
At the mouth of the valley lies the 
Hakgalla Botanical Garden, where one 
sees the most wonderful tree and all 
other ferns in this chosen region of tree 
ferns. The huge fronds show on every 
hillside and in every gully, and they 
used to be the favorite food of the herds 
of wild elephants that roamed here and 
nipped out the juicy but at the heart of 
the fern. 
The gardens command a magnificent 
view, and over a great amphitheater of 
tea-clad hills and valleys and straight 
across on the opposite hills show the gal- 
vanized-iron sheds, where some 1,800 
hale and hearty, strapping, big Boer pris- 
oners were fed and fattened in idleness 
for more than a year after their surren- 
der in South Africa. The slow Sinha- 
lese brain could not understand that ab- 
surdity, for in their wars they either, 
knocked their prisoners on the head. 
