No. 62—1909.] 



NOTES ON DELFT, 



341 



NOTES ON DELFT. 



By the Hon. Mr. J. P. Lewis, CCS. 



The island of Delft, called by the natives Neduntivu, which 

 means " Long island," is situated 16 miles to the south- 

 west of Kayts island as the crow flies, and is about 6 miles 

 long by an average of 3 broad. It is of coral formation 

 and perfectly flat, the northern part consisting of groves of 

 palmyras, and the southern of " stone-strewn plains covered 

 with good grass and dotted with suriya trees."* Its extent 

 is about 11,500 acres (or 18 square miles), of which 2,500 or so 

 are under dry grain cultivation, 1,100 under palmyras, and 

 4,700 pasture land. It comprises three villages known as 

 Delft East (Kilakhu Kurichchi), Delft Centre (Nadu Kurichchi), 

 and Delft West (Metku Kurichchi). Of these, Delft West is 

 the most prosperous. There are 20 miles of roads, rough 

 and stony. A survey of the island was made in 1854 by 

 Mr. D. Quinton. 



The population at the Census of 1901 was 3,906, and at the 

 end of 1905 it was estimated to be 4,050, an annual increase 

 of about 7 per cent, in five years. There are about 1,000 

 people belonging to the island employed elsewhere in Ceylon. 



The people possessed in 1905 four boats (vattai), all under 

 8 tons, and twenty catamarans. 



The chief exports are mats, shark fins, ghee in bottles and 

 pots, copra in bags, pindddu, dried palmyra seeds, coconuts, 

 cotton thread, cuttle-fish bones, and cattle. Delft ghee is 

 in demand at Jaffna. About 50 candies of copra, 20,000 

 coconuts, and 10,000 cadjans were exported from Delft to 

 the Jaffna peninsula in 1905, also six boat loads of coral, four 

 boat loads of suriya timber, and cow dung. 



* An interesting account of " A Cruise among the Islands off Jaffna," 

 by Mr. A. Clark, late of the Forest Department, was published in the 

 " Ceylon Literary Register," vol. L, p. 24- et seq. 



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