42 JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [YOL. XV. 



are, are interesting so far as this Province goes, considering 

 that it has hitherto received very little, if any, notice at all 

 from a geological standpoint. Dixon (1881) spent no incon- 

 siderable portion of his leisure in geological and mineralogi- 

 cal researches, but his investigations throw very little light 

 on this Province.* Several local writers have written 

 fugitive papers, dealing more or less with certain portions 

 of the Island. But none of these authors and writers have 

 explored the interior of any of the plumbago mines in this 

 Province — the shaft of one of which alone has penetrated 

 1,500 feet into the bowels of the earth. These deep-sunk 

 pits have thrown open large and important sections of strata, 

 from which much knowledge can be gathered of our Island 

 crust, hitherto locked up ^in the sealed book of Nature. 



The testimony is conflicting with regard to the actual 

 dimensions of the Island as it existed in " the dark abysm 

 of time," when, according to the Bdmdyana, the oldest epic 

 in the world, Rama proceeded to Lanka with a mighty army, 

 waged a protracted war with Ravana, laid seige to his 

 capital, and carried back in triumph the ravished Sita, the 

 beautiful queen of the vanquisher, from the jungle fastness, 

 where she remained imprisoned for many a weary year ; and 

 it is a moot point whether the ocean now rolls over once 

 fertile and populous lands, and whether this partial subsi- 

 dence of the Island caused its severance from the mainland 

 of India, of which it formed part. Avoiding all discussion 

 as to whether our beautiful isle has diminished into its 

 present size by the gradual encroachments of the usurping 

 sea, — 



When were the winds 

 Let slip with such a warrant to destroy ? 

 When did the waves so haughtily overleap 

 Their ancient barriers ? 



it is sufficient to state that changes in the relative position 

 of sea and land are said to have occurred on the maritime 



Journal, C.B.R.A.S., vol. VII., No. 23, 1881, p. 12. 



