NO. 48. — 1897.] GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. 



portions of this Province, and they seem to receive support 

 from this tradition : — 



In the time of the famed Queen Allirasani, the Gulf of Kalpitiya had 

 no opening to the northward, but communicated with the sea by a 

 channel running in the line of the present Chilaw canal ; that the queen 

 above named used to proceed from Kudremalai to Akkarai pattu 

 by land ; and that a great flood came, buried her palace under the 

 waves, and bursting through a neck of land, converted the lake into a 

 gulf, which form it still retains.* 



Lord Valentia,in 1804, testified to the appearance presented 

 by the " singular " island Navakarre,| which showed every 

 sign of having been formerly covered by the sea. In 

 travelling from Puttalam to Arippo, His Lordship drew the 

 conclusion that the bank formiug the outer boundary of the 

 lagoon was formerly part of the ocean. The lagoon, he 

 thought, Avould soon be filled up, and the sea itself removed 

 to a still greater distance.^ 



The opinions of Lord Valentia, Macvicar, Gardner, and 

 Kelaart all favour the hope that the whole of Ceylon, parti- 

 cularly the western coast, would gradually rise above the 

 sea level, and that consequently the time, geologically speak- 

 ing, is not far distant when the Island will again become 

 united with the Continent of India. 



Rocks. 



The oldest rocks in the North-Western Province, like the 

 rest of the mountain system of the Island, belong mainly 

 to the Archaean or pre-Cambrian age. The prevailing rock 

 is gneiss of a crystalline nature, with no inconsiderable 

 veins of quartz, felspar, mica, and hornblende. This Pro- 

 vince forms part of the plain which surrounds the mountain 

 district, and Campbell has likened it to a sea of rolling gneiss 

 with waves on the strike north and south. The dip is 



* Journal, C.B.E.A.S., No. 6, 1853. 



| Akkarapattoo. one of the divisions of the District of Puttalam, 

 improperly denominated in the maps Navacarre. — Casie Chifcty's " Gazet- 

 teer," p. 4. 



t Mavor's - Collection of Travels," vol. XXVIII., pp. 136-38. 



