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JOURNAL B. A. S (CEYLON.) 



[Vol. IIL 



There being little trade in this district, and the people having 

 a great dislike to strangers and to bustle, the Road Ordinance 

 is even now far from popular ; but the more intelligent villagers 

 are becoming convinced of the advantages which it secures to 

 them, 



Climate, 



Some one said long ago, that the climate of Nuwarakalawiya 

 was very deadly — that the place was a second Sierra Leone ; and 

 no n mount of proof to the contrary has yet dissipated this 

 absurdly erroneous opinion. It is quite possible, that twenty 

 or thirty years ago, fever was more prevalent than at present ; 

 but I do not know of anything to warrant the conclusion, that 

 even at that time it was unhealthy during the greater part of 

 the year. Situated in a vast plain, which is covered with dense 

 wood, and in which there is a multitude of neglected tanks, the 

 place is certainly no sanitarium, but still I think that during 

 nine months of the year, it is fully as healthy as most stations. 

 The unhealthy season lasts from the beginning of December till 

 the end of February, and during this portion of the year the 

 establishments are allowed to remove elsewhere. As the jungle 

 around the station becomes cleared away, and as the place 

 becomes more healthy, the furlough allowed is gradually circum- 

 scribed, and in the course of a few years, there will probably be 

 no occasion for an annual interruption of public business. The 

 fever of Nuwarakalawiya is distinguished less by the violence 

 of sudden isolated attacks, than by its insidiousness and long- 

 continuance. One is never very ill, but neither is one ever very 

 well ; one feels a general listlessness, a sensibility to the effects 

 of draughts, which gradually debilitates one to a lamentable 

 extent. 



It is a common remark of the people, that draughts are much 

 more common now than they used to be twenty or thirty years 

 ago, and this is — justly, as I believe, — attributed to the great 

 extension of the chena system, whereby pools, springs, and 

 marshes are dried, and large surfaces exposed to the burning rays 

 of the sun. I regret to say, that my manifold engagements, and 



