186 



JOUBNAL B. A. S. (CEYLON.) 



[Vol. III. 



TOPOGRAPHICAL AND STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF 

 THE DISTRICT OF NUWARAKALAWIYA. 



By A. Oswald Bkodie, Esq. 



The district of Nuwarakalawiya may be described as that 

 portion of Ceylon which is included in the following lines : — 



I. One running from a point one mile north of Dambulla 

 to another about five and twenty miles west of Trincomalie. 



II. A second from the last mentioned spot to the ninety- 

 fifth mile post south of Jaffna. 



III. A third running thence to within six miles of Arippu. 



IV. A fourth proceeding thence south-south-east to a place 

 about twelve miles west of Pomparrippu. 



V. A fifth joining this last mentioned point with that near 

 Dambulla. 



The area of the district is about 2,900 square miles. 



According to the last census returns (1852) the population 

 is only 32,103, but this is manifestly erroneous, as there are 

 10,910 persons liable to the road tax, and the number of able 

 bodied persons cannot well be more than one-fifth of the 

 community. As all these returns are more or less erroneous, 

 (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 appear to be 9,804, which would give 

 3_2 th persons to each house, but it must be observed, that 

 headmen frequently apply the term "house" to a range of 

 contiguous dwellings. 



