the District of Noowerakalawiya. 



151 



(giving the numbers too small, as the headmen persist in 

 omitting numbers of women and children,) we may safely 

 reckon the population at about fifty-five or sixty thousand. 



The number of houses appears to be 9,804, which would 

 give 3 one-ninth persons to each house, but it must be ob- 

 served, that headmen frequently apply the term " house" to 

 a range of contiguous dwellings. 



The district on the whole is flat, not indeed flat in the same 

 sense as the land near Manaar, Jaffna, &c., is flat, but it is 

 not in any sense mountainous; the general surface consists 

 of gentle undulations, and here and there isolated peaks or 

 short ranges of hills appear. These are most common in lines 

 north-east and south-west of Dambool, and within twenty 

 or thirty miles of that place, elsewhere they are of rarer 

 occurrence and of less elevation. To the north, south, and 

 south-west of the station, hills entirely disappear. The 

 southern part of the district forms in fact the extreme 

 northern verge of the great central mountain mass of Ceylon, 

 and the isolated hills are outliers thereof. 



The whole face of the country, except where occupied by 

 fields or tanks, is clothed by dense forest ; and a large tract 

 lying to the south, south-east and south-west of the station 

 is almost uninhabited. This arises in part from a want of 

 water, and in part, as has been remarked, to the policy of the 

 ancient rulers of the Island, who interposed this barrier be- 

 tween themselves and the marauders who were wont to 

 infest the maritime districts. There is yet another circum- 

 stance which probably has not been without its influence, I 

 refer to the intense dislike which the villagers have, to con- 

 tact with strangers. So strongly does this feeling still exist, 

 that we have even now to take the greatest care not to bring 

 roads too near to villages, as in this case the people inva- 

 riably abandon their dwellings, and migrate to some neigh- 

 bouring but more secluded spot. 



