FROM KANDY TO CALTURA. 417 
day free from clouds, and the sky a deep blue. We did 
not feel the heat of the sun ardent, nor was the light strong. 
Several times during the course of the day there were slight 
showers of rain, without an impending cloud. Distant ob- 
jects appeared comparatively near. 
Towards sun-set, the clouds which floated in the lower 
strata of the atmosphere became more dense than they had 
been during the day. The view from the Peak was now 
remarkably sublime, various and attractive. Our attention 
was strongly arrested by the rapid formation and seemingly 
fantastical motions of the clouds. Their transitions did not 
appear to be occasioned by any very general cause. This 
was evident by the extreme variety of their motions, and 
the limited extent of the atmosphere, which seemed to be 
influenced by one current of a;ir. 
Sometimes we saw distinct patches of white clouds lying 
quite still on the surface of the earth, while, in their imme- 
diate neighbourhood, other clouds were in rapid motion. 
A small cloud, which at first appeared like smoke rising 
from a chimney, would sometimes expand, and in a short 
time cover a hill, or large extent of surface. In a few in- 
stances we saw clouds rise from the earth in a perpendi- 
cular column, having, at the same time, a whirling or rota- 
tory motion. When we turned our attention to another 
mountain, there, perhaps, we saw its top completely enve- 
loped in a fleecy cloud, which roiled in large volumes im- 
petuously down the upper portion of the mountain, like a 
tremendous cataract, sweeping every impediment before it. 
These vapours were instantly dissipated and dissolved in 
the pure atmosphere, when they reached a certain way 
down the mountain. There was evidently a great number 
of strata or currents of air in the atmosphere, which were 
shown by the various directions of different clouds. But, 
independently of the horizontal strata, there seemed to be 
yerticai columns of clouds. 
