Chap. VIII.] 



PELICANS. 



263 



It is situated in the depth of the forests to the north- 

 west of Trincomalie, and the tank is itself the basin 

 of a broad and shallow valley, enclosed between two 

 lines of low hills, that gradually sink into the plain as 

 they approach towards the sea. The extreme breadth 

 of the included space may be twelve or fourteen miles, 

 narrowing to eleven at the spot where the retain- 

 ing bund has been constructed across the valley ; and 

 when this enormous embankment was in effectual repair, 

 and the reservoir filled by the rains, the water must 

 have been thrown back along the basin of the valley 

 for at least fifteen miles. It is difficult now to deter- 

 mine the precise distances, as the overgrowth of wood 

 and jungle has obliterated all lines left by the original 

 level of the lake at its junction with the forest. Even 

 when we rode along it, the centre of the tank was deeply 

 submerged, so that notwithstanding the partial escape, 

 the water still covered an area of ten miles in diameter. 

 Even now its depth when full must be very considerable, 

 for high on the branches of the trees that grow in the 

 area, the last flood had left quantities of driftwood and 

 withered grass ; and the rocks and banks were coated 

 with the yeasty foam, that remains after the subsidence 

 of an agitated flood. 



The bed of the tank was difficult to ride over, being 

 still soft and treacherous, although covered everywhere 

 with tall and waving grass ; and in every direction it 

 was poched into deep holes by the innumerable ele- 

 phants that had congregated to roll in the soft mud, to 

 bathe in the collected water, or to luxuriate in the rich 

 herbage, under the cool shade of the trees. The ground, 

 too, was thrown up into hummocks like great molehills 

 which, the natives told us, were formed by a huge earth - 



s 4 



