NO. 48.— -1897.] GEOLOGY AND MTNBRALOGY. 



39 



A GEOLOGICAL AND MINERALOGICAL SKETCH 

 OF THE NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCE, 

 CEYLON. 

 By F. H. Modder. 



Prefatory Note. 



An eminent authority has observed that " the sciences of 

 geology and mineralogy, &c, in all their branches are but im- 

 perfectly understood by the natives." He might with more 

 truth and less modesty have said they were lamentably 

 ignorant of these useful sciences. " Notwithstanding Ceylon 

 is the depository of such an extensive variety of specimens, 

 their attention seems never to have extended beyond the 

 valuable gems and the mineral ores. As to a thousand other 

 subjects, both on the surface of the earth and hidden in the 

 substrata of nature, so interesting to men of science, they 

 have allowed them an almost undisturbed repose, never 

 having exerted themselves either to quarry out a knowledge 

 of their latent properties, or ascertain their intrinsic 

 worth."" 



The difficulty of prosecuting the investigation of these 

 important and useful branches of science cannot be better 

 summed up than in the words of Professor Fletcher, though 

 his remarks have special reference only to terrestrial mineral 

 products : — 



It is practically, or rather economically, possible to obtain a direct 

 knowledge of only those mineral products of the earth itself which are 

 situated within a mile or so beneath its surface ; that is to say, within 

 a crust having a thickness which is only one-four thousandth part of the 

 earth's radius ; but the detailed investigation of even this limited 

 amount of matter is far too vast for one individual or one science. 



* Quoted by Pridham in a footnote. 



