Dr Kelaart's Notes on the Geology of Ceylon. 35 



quent upheavals after the waters had deposited the gravel 

 and loam. It is, perhaps, in this manner only that the 

 almost uniform thickness of the gravel and loam in the valleys 

 and on the tops of the hills can be accounted for. Had the 

 present elevated surface existed while the waters were de- 

 positing the heavier particles held in suspension, we should 

 expect to find thicker layers of gravel on the valleys than on 

 the sides of hills ; such is not, however, the case : thick beds 

 of gravel are even found on the tops of the hills several 

 hundred feet above the present drainage of the plains. .Geo- 

 logists have decided that the mountains of Southern India 

 were elevated to their present heights by successive uphea- 

 vals, and therefore it is not objectionable to consider the 

 higher lands of Ceylon to have also been elevated by more 

 than one upheaval. There is abundant evidence, too, besides 

 the one just alluded to, to conclude that Ceylon has been sub- 

 jected to successive internal forces, which will explain also 

 the present configuration of the mountain masses of Nuwera 

 Ellia and the characters of Nuwera Ellia and Horton Plains. 

 Hitherto no evidence of deluvial or glacial currents have 

 been found in Ceylon. The rounded rocks of granite and 

 gneiss, seen on various parts of the island, are the effects of 

 a spontaneous concentric exfoliation, which small and large 

 masses of these rocks are susceptible of. Major Lushington 

 has instanced this peculiar exfoliation in a gigantic scale on 

 the rock of Dambool. Alluvial and fluviatile deposits are 

 seen in various parts of the island ; but none, perhaps, so 

 extensive as the fluviatile deposits of Nuwera Ellia, which 

 appear to extend from Horton Plains passing over Nuwera 

 Ellia, and progressing towards the valleys of Maturatte on 

 one side, and to Dimboola on the other. Although these de- 

 posits are not of a diluvial nature, still there is an importance 

 attached to them, as they shew that at a former epoch the 

 interior of Ceylon was traversed by broader and more expan- 

 sive sheets of water than any of the rivers of the present 

 day. It is doubtful, however, whether this large lake or river, 

 which has deposited its mud on the plains of Nuwera Ellia, 

 is dwindled down into the narrow streams which now exist 

 on these plains as tributaries to the great Mahavilla ganga. 



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