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JOURNAL; R.A.S. (CEYLON). 



[Vol. IX. 



branch of pencil-making, and perhaps electrotyping, the 

 New World has gone, or is rapidly going, in advance of the 

 old in the plumbago industry, which means corresponding 

 advance in the steel industry. It is surely a striking inci- 

 dent in the romance of commerce that this ancient eastern 

 isle of " Serendib," the scene of the mythical adventures of 

 Sinbad the Sailor, should be the main source of supply of an 

 article so useful in the industries and elegancies of life, the 

 appliances of peace aud war, and the pursuits of the artist 

 and literary man, not only to countries in the Eastern 

 hemisphere, but to the regions of the Far Western world. 



Having noticed the leading establishments in Europe and 

 America, where our Asiatic ore is so largely utilized, let 

 us now turn to one of the compounds, or yards, with its 

 brick and tar " barbecue" or platform, and surrounding 

 sheds, in which Sinhalese men, women, and boys prepare, 

 assort, and pack the mineral when received in Colombo 

 from pits, none of which are nearer than thirty miles, and 

 some of which are so distant as the District of Hambantota at 

 the eastern extremity of the Southern Province. The chief 

 exhibitor of plumbago at the Melbourne Exhibition of 

 1880-81 was Mr. W. A. Fernando, of No. 1, Brownrigg- 

 street, Cinnamon Gardens, Colombo, and a description of 

 his establishment, which the editors of the Ceylon Observer 

 gave in their paper of August 12th, 1880, is, in all sub- 

 stantial details, correct in August, 1885. Mr. Fernando's 

 exhibits at Melbourne were illustrated by a set of photo- 

 graphs, which, having been presented by the writer to 

 Mr. Charles Moore, of the Sydney Botanic Gardens, unfortu- 

 nately perished in the fire which destroyed the Exhibition 

 building at Sydney. The photographs were thus des- 

 cribed : — 



" Photographs Nos. 1 and 3 (counting from the left-hand corner) 

 show an enormous block of plumbago weighing originally 

 4 cwt. (one-fifth of a ton), and the dimensions of which, when 

 photographed, were as follows : — 2 feet in height, 2 J feet in 

 breadth, 6 feet in circumference horizontally, 4 feet 10 inches 

 vertically. 



" The block, with other large and small specimens of the 

 mineral, is placed on the platform (barbecue, or asphalted floor) 

 on which pieces of plumbago (after being washed in water, so as 



