4 EXCURSION TO 
modation at the rest-house was clean and 
comfortable. We were visited bythe Mode- 
lear, or native headman of the district, a 
remarkably civil, respectable person, who 
understands and speaks English well; he 
brought us a present of fruit from his gar- 
den, consisting of oranges, pine-apples, &c. 
25th—Up before day-break, and on 
horseback almost before we could see our 
way over the frail-looking wooden bridge 
across the wide ditch of the ancient for- 
tress. A very delightful ride of eleven 
miles, brought us to Sittanaka, formerly the 
seat of government of Raaja Singha, king 
of Kandy, between the years 1581 and 
1592. The place now consists of a few mud 
huts in the neighbourhood of the rest- 
house e road, with the exception of a 
few bad places, and a number of very 
fragile decayed-looking wooden bridges, 
which appear hardly equal to support the 
weight of a horse, is, upon the whole, a 
tolerable bridle path, and I found the 
variety of a little up and down-hill work, 
a pleasant change after the dead level of 
our yesterday’s journey; and I think less 
fatiguing. We had some fine views of 
Adam’s Peak and the intervening moun- 
tains, but were disappointed by find- 
ing few plants in flower. In the forest, 
through which the last mile of our road lay, 
we saw many magnificent Ferns, some from 
twelve to twenty feet in height; and we 
carried to the rest-house with us speci- 
mens of a large shrub, or rather a small 
tree, new to Col. W., but which he thinks 
belongs to the Dilain flowers yel- 
low. Elephants, we are told, abound in 
this neighourhood, ag we saw none. After 
breakfast our servants brought us a few 
plants, among which we found two Sidas, 
mew to us. I never suffered so much from 
heat, in Ceylon, as during the forenoon of 
this day ; the rest-house was exposed to the 
direct rays of the sun, without shade of any 
kind, and the wind blew like the hot winds 
of India. At four o'clock set off for the first 
time in my little Madeira palankeen, in 
shape something between a cradle and a o 
coffin, and found ita very comfortable con- 
veyance. About half way we were met by 
ADAM'S PEAK. 
Capt. L., who returned with us, and es- S. | 
corted us to his hospitable mansion, at . 
Ruanwelle, where we arrived about six 
o'clock. 
26th.—The fort, or military station, of 
Ruanwelle, is situated very prettily, at the 
junction of two rivers the Kalanygunga, 
and the  Goosoogoddeoyah, the word 
gunga in Cingalese meaning river, and 
oyah a smaller stream; in the evening we 
went down the Kalanygunga for about 
two miles in Capt. L's boat; landed under 
a steep bank, and proceeded to visit a 
Boodhist Temple under a great mass of 
rock in the side of a steep hill, the whole 
of which is covered with singularly de- 
tached masses of rock, under many of 
which are caves, or hollows, so large that, 
our friend had converted one of them into 
a dwelling-house, where he lived with his 
wife and family for upwards of two months 
during the hot season, finding it consider- 
ably cooler than the fort of Ruanwelle. A 
rill of limpid and very cold water, trick- 
ling from the top of a neighbouring cave, 
was converted into a delicious bath. There 
is a tradition among the natives that from 
the top of the largest and highest of these 
boulders of rock, a queen of Candy, in 
former days, precipitated herself, or was 
thrown by her husband, but the legend 
does not seem to be very distinct in par- 
ticulars. Porcupines are numerous on this 
hill. The old priest, who (I believe, con- 
sidered me a proselyte to Boodhism, when 
he heard I had been to the top of Adam's 
Peak, and was so far on my way on a 
second pilgrimage) presented me with a 
number of their quills, which are much 
smaller than those I have seen in the upper 
provinces of Bengal. In the botanical way 
we found nothing in flower; but I am con- 
vinced there must be many and various 
plants on this remarkable mountain, which 
is watered by several springs seeming to 
rise among the rocks, and trickle in nu- 
merous rills down its side. The soil too 
varies ; some parts are wooded, others 
pen, affording localities for plants of dif- 
ferent habits and descriptions. It is also 
remarkable, as having formed the left 
a 
