January i, i8goJ THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
483 
has extended far and near in Asia as well as to 
Europe in Greek, Roman, Venetian and more recent 
times. The gem-yielding country of Ceylon covers 
a wide region and many and diverse have been 
the experiments made in the Central, Western and 
Southern Provinces, to gather a harvest of gems, 
among the latest being that of Sir Samuel Baker below 
Nuwara Eliya and Horton Plains. But there is 
a signifioanoe in the fact which will be duly ap- 
preciated by our visitor that the natives for gene- 
rations seem to have had certain defined favorite 
localities, and yet these are so wide apart in some 
oases— including Batnapura, Bakwana, districts 
around Matara, below Balangoda in Maskeliya, and 
the Moon Plains, Nuwara Eliya— as to lead to the 
belief in a wide field for the expert and, as we 
hope, the resulting Gemming Companies. 
Dr. John Davy (brother of Sir Humphrey Davy) 
was one of the first to write intelligently and 
scientifically about the "Gems of Ceylon," and 
Mr. Barrington Brown has no doubt already 
read a'l that he and others have to Bay on 
the subject, in, the volume " All About Gold, Gems 
and Pearls in Ceylon " which we have endeavoured 
to make a repertory of all that is useful on the sub- 
jeot. One thing is clear, that neither Burma, South 
Africa nor, perhaps any other couutry, yielding 
precious stones under the sun, can compare with 
Ceylon in the conveniences offered for deve- 
loping any large industry of the kind. We have 
a peaceful settled oountry, well served by roads (if 
not by railway) with the cheapest and most reliable 
of labour supplies, with good acclimatised super- 
visors ready to hand ; a climate on the whole fairly 
good, the seaside and our cool hill regions being 
within easy reach; and we trust we may also 
add in this malter — though the proof perhaps has yet 
to come — a Government enlightened and progressive 
enough to understand that it is for the interests 
of Ceylon and its people to give every possible 
encouragement to Mr. Barrington Brown and his 
principals and agents in a work which may be the 
means of bringing large amounts of capital for 
the development of the island. 
We are aware of the hard work done by Mr. 
E. G. Harding— who is back looking like a giant 
refreshed after his holiday— in promoting the Gem 
Syndicate and by Mr. W. Saunders in making 
arrangements about land leases and concessions 
at this end ; and we know that the promises of 
support from some of the wealthiest of London 
Brokers and C ipitalists, make it very certain that 
any amount of oapital required will be forthcoming 
at onoe, on the conditions now to be worked for, being 
fulfilled. We have always gone on the broad fact 
that if Upper Burma is deemed a favourable 
field for the establishment of an important Gemming 
Company, much more ought Ceylon ; and this has 
been the mainspring of action on the part of the 
Messrs. Saunders and Harding in getting up the 
preliminary Syndicate (some shares in which at 
Mr, H £ ding's urgent request have been reserved 
for Ceylon), to be followed in due season by 
a large Company if all goes well at this end. The 
second point, on which we have dwelt in opposi- 
tion to a good many old colonists and would-be 
authorities who had pooh-poohed the idea of 
Europeans getting the gems even after being found, 
with coolies ready to conoeal and even swallow them 
at every turn, — is the immense advantage of work- 
ing with modfrn machinery. Our expectation is 
most fully conilrnied as to maohines now existing 
whioh absolutely preclude the risk of the loss of 
any stoue oau; ht up in the exoavatious, the same 
being oarried on, until by specific gravity it is 
separated and deposited in a receptable available 
only to the manager. 
In the meantime we have to await the result 
of the prolonged and careful examination of our 
gemming oountry by Mr. Barrington Brown. It is 
not likely he will leave Ceylon, or arrive at definite 
conclusions on whioh to base his final Report, 
much before February. The weather is, of oourse, 
henceforward all in favor of operations. Mr. 
Barrington Brown who arrived yesterday by the 
S. S. "Lusitania" is at present the guest of the 
Government Agent for the Western Provinoe. He 
is likely to visit the gem-cutting "establishment of 
Mr. Louis Siedle this afternoon, to see the local 
manipulation of some of our stones. On Saturday 
he will probably acoompany Messrs. Harding 
and Saunders to Dikoya — the holidays being 
so close at hand — and have a look at Mas- 
keliya, Bogawantalawa (and perhaps the Moon 
Plains, Nuwara Eliya) before travelling down 
via Balangoda to Sabaragamuwa. We feel 
sure that whatever be the professional outcome of 
his visit, Mr. Barrington Brown will see much 
to interest him in his visit to the island, and his 
Report is sure to be full of scientific as well as 
commercial interest. It is a disgrace to the Ceylon 
Government that the Geological Survey of the island 
which we have been urging for twenty years baok, 
has not yet been undertaken. Mr. Wm. King, now 
at the head of the Geological Survey of India, was 
very keen about it when as a junior he used to 
visit his brother in this island about the time we 
mention. But we may well hope that as one re- 
suit of the present enquiry about gems, this survey 
will not now be muoh longer delayed. 
USE OF WIND POWER IN CEYLON. 
As might be expected, the Dutoh, who oarried 
their great institution of canals to Ceylon, did 
not neglect the allied appliance for drainage and 
water-raising, in the shape of windmills. They 
used wind power for a different purpose, however. 
Christoph Schweitzer, whose quaint and interest- 
ing acoount of Ceylon more than two oenturies 
ago is appearing in the Literary Register , in 
describing the Colombo Fort of 16fi5 wrote : — 
" There is also a Powder Wind-Mill by Port de 
Gala [the gate facing Galle, whioh we remember 
as the South Gate] and by the Water-Pass, a 
Wind-Mill to saw Boards, &o."* This is very 
interesting, and perhaps some of our friends learned 
in the Dutoh lore of the oolony may favour us 
with any further referenoes to the use of wind- 
power by our predecessors which they may find 
in reoords or respecting which the older Dutoh 
descendants may have traditions. We should 
like especially to know whether windmills 
were utilized for draining swamps or lakes 
or in raising water for irrigation. It is a question 
of cost, of course, as to whether a small move- 
able wind mill oould not be used to raise water 
from a lower level to higher in paddy-fields, in- 
stead of the large ola baskets slung* with ropes 
now in use, and also in some places in superses- 
sion of the " well-whip," used in Jaffna to raise 
well water for irrigation, and in Colombo and 
other places to fill bath tubs. Beside first cost of a 
windmill, which ought not to be high, there is, 
no doubt, the difficulty of arranging the sails, so 
* These milla are referred to by Dr. Daalmans in 
his notes on Oeylon (1687-89) translated in the liter- 
ary Register II, p. 303, as follows :— " Here [near the 
Waterpass] stands a saw-mill worked by wind.... 
Close to the G-alle Gate there stands a powder-mill, 
worked also by wind, where gunpowder ia manufac- 
tured." Thii powder-mill was bnilt by the Portu- 
guese ; but we believe that in their time it was 
worked by a water-wheel. — Ed, 
