NO. 48.— 1897.] GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. 61 



Silver. — Tradition says that when King Dutugemunu 

 was engaged in constructing some important public works 

 he ran short of funds, and in order to avoid his labourers 

 who were clamouring for their wages, he fled into the jungle. 

 Here he chanced upon a vein of silver, which supplied him 

 with ample means to satisfy his pecuniary wants. In 

 grateful remembrance of the miraculously opportune and 

 fortuitous discovery, he is said to have built over the site of 

 the vein what is known as " Ridi Vihare" — the silver 

 temple — eleven miles from Kurunegala, and endowed it with 

 extensive property. The "Kadaim-pota" records that in the 

 Dewamedirata — the country so called from its situation 

 between two rivers, the Deduru and Mi oyas, and correspond- 

 ing in some measure to the modern Dewamedi-hat-pattu of 

 the Kurunegala District, which, however, owing to its altered 

 boundaries does not embrace the whole of the division 

 included by these rivers — there is silver to be found in a cave. 



Iron exists in different forms, and is pretty generally 

 distributed. It is chiefly met with in the following spe- 

 cies : Iron pyrites, hematite, and bog-iron, " The only ore 

 heard of," says Brodie, writing of the Puttalam and Chilaw 

 Districts, " is bog-iron, procured in considerable quantities 

 a few miles to the south of Chilaw and smelted by the natives, 

 who, it appears, observed its reproduction."* 



Casie Chitty observes that Yagam pattu " abounds in iron 

 ore, and derives its name from that circumstance."! 



There are numerous caves and vast caverns in the Crown 

 forest known as Penirendawa in the Chilaw District, from 

 which the natives assert iron was dug out in the olden days. 

 These abandoned recesses afford a secure rendezvous to run- 

 away criminals, who take shelter in them to evade justice. 

 In October, 1896, these caves were searched as likely places 

 for the Chilaw murderers who had escaped from jail, but 

 without success, the stay of the fugitives there having been 

 very short. 



* Journal, C.B.R.A.S., No, 6, 1853. f " Ceylon Gazetteer," p. 223. 



