1889.] ^l Naturalists Rambles in Ceylon. 691 
explore it. And so, although his means were slender, and his 
constitution none of the best, he resolved to set out on what may 
be truly termed a voyage of discovery, prepared for years of toil 
and travel in the tropics of the East, and the island of Ceylon 
was the country he intended to explore in the first instance. 
When Dr. Goldschniied first asked me to accompany him, I 
treated the matter as a joke, for nothing, I thought, could be more 
foolish for one like me, still engaged in study and with a particular 
career sketched out for him, than to embark in such an enter- 
prise. But I began to reflect over the proposal, and the more I 
reflected the more attractive it became, the more fascinating, until 
it grew perfectly irresistible, and to the surprise of many friends, 
and against the advice of near relatives, who predicted dire 
calamities, 1 determined to go with the young explorer. 
More than thirteen years have elapsed since then, and I can- 
not say that I have once looked with regret upon that resolution. 
It was a mistake in some respects ; it drew me away from what 
looked like a promising career at home, and flung me upon the 
very high seas of life ; it brought in its train many troubles and 
disappointments which I would not have encountered had I re- 
mained in the fatherland, but those two years of Eastern travel 
taught me a number of invaluable lessons. It opened my eyes 
to things which I would never have understood had I stayed 
at home, — things of surpassing interest and beauty ; it afforded me 
an insight into the mysteries of an almost unknown world, an in- 
sight into some departments of natural history which no amount 
of book-study could ha\e given me, even if I had mastered 
whole libraries of science; it enlarged my horizon, and gave me a 
totally different idea of this queer world in which wo li\e : 
indeed I may say that I shall ne\cr regret that \oyage to Ccxlon. 
Now I do not here jiroposc to give the details of thi. xoVage 
in a sort of diarx-fashion. I presume that the reader does not 
care over-much for an account of mere incidents of travel ; what 
I desire is to tell him something about Ceylon, about my impres- 
sions of that island, of what I saw and observed there during a 
two years' residence, and I shall drop the style of personal narra- 
tive as much as pi^ssible, and only revert to it when absolutely 
