October i, 1888.I THF. TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
229 
way of discovering the trutli whs by personal investi- 
gation. The river ran clear, we were told, and over a 
visible bid at Mr. Hill's 6tation,eevi a mill b out of town 
and therefore at early morning to Mr, UiiU' station we 
set forth. The morning was cold and frosty — enough 
winter about it, one would imagine, to satisfy any 
salmon; but the journey was Bhort and the roads good, 
and at !) o'clock we were down on the bank of the river 
immediately bolow the homes!' ml. 
We are tumbling down a steep bank, and walking 
through rank grass and various vegetable growths to 
the river's bunk. Satin birds fly along before US, and 
red and I hie rooms flit from bough to bough. We 
come right to the edge, and look down on the river. 
I'll, hud In 10 is of sand, silt, gravel, and snags. The 
water is a pale bluish green, tolerably clear, but not 
transparent; the bank of loose silt, hue, almost as 
whealen Hour, washed down from the hills and spread 
over the Ma's by the rains and Hoods of ages. Avery 
brief inspection suffices. " Trout," says Sir Thomas, 
" but not salmon. That is not a salmon stream." "Did 
you ever try trout here?" "Yes, we have put trout 
in the stream." ''How many ?" " A few hundreds." 
" Put in a few tens of thousands, and you would have 
a better chance ol success." SirThomas holdsstrongly, 
and, as one cannot doubt, rightly, that this business of 
introducing new tish must be gone into in a wholesale 
fashion ; to put a handful of foreign fish inlo a river is 
like scattering a haudlul of strange seeds in a forest. 
The four hundred thousand young fish which will 
shortly be released in Tasmauian waters are not by any 
means an extravagant number. " It will be four years 
before they begin the work of reproduction, remember, 
and think of all the enemies that will assail them 
during that period." But is the game worth all this 
mighty expenditure of caudle ': Well, yes, taking, as 
in all other instances, the commercial aspect first. The 
salmon exported from Ireland return on an average 
£600,000 annually, and probably .tlUU.OUO worth go into 
home consumption. And to this must he added that 
unkuowu quantity — the value of the sport. If that be 
eo, we must really endeavour to find a true salmon 
stream in Gippslund, and where shall we look for it ? 
" The Snowy," says one, and another " The Snowy is 
as fine a stream as could be found in the world." I 
in \ -.elf have seen and heard the Snowy brawling over 
the granite boulders at Buckley's Crossing, in the 
Manaro Mouutaius, and join in the genera) chorus of 
advi»e that the Snowy should be visited. 
We attract attention to the statement that Sir 
Thos. Brady" did not expect the tiout to breed 
under four years. Has not Mr. Le Mesurier 
therefore been expecting results at too early 
a date from his fish ? But to continue our ex- 
tracts : — 
We pa>s on, and an hour after noon steam through 
the broad channel which skirts the long, Hat narrow 
cape iuto Lake King. The luminous Home of waters 
ami of tish opens broad before us, and as we steam out 
the tar away blue mountains rise beyeud the dark, low 
limbered hills. There are streaks ot snow in the clefts 
of Mount Wellington, but every other height is far 
faint cobalt. The lake is smootli as glass, and ten 
thousand swans and a hundred thousand ducks are 
sailing or resting ou its broad curface. 
Tho aocouitt is to be continued, and in due time 
we shall doubtleBs learn Sir Thos. Brady's opi- 
nions regarding the Snowy Biver, the Avon, the 
Mao Allister and other noble mountain streams, 
which flow through the majestic forests and rich 
soil of Uippsiand. Moantiine, might it not bo well 
if efforts were made to obtain ova from the trout 
(whatever may be said of tho salmon) which liavu 
nourished so wonderfully in the grand Derwent river 
ol Tasmania. It scouis probable that the progeny 
of troot naturalized in tho climate ol an island 
so much more alike in conditions to those of the hill 
country of Ceylon than any part of liuiopu could 
bo would ho raoru likely to thrive in our 
iln<ams than that brought direct from regiorU 
so much colder for a large portion of the yeur. 
Advantage might be taken of the presence in 
Australia of Mr. Arthur Sinclair, a former Ceylon 
planter, and still retaining a diep interest in the 
welfare of our island, to obtain supplies of fish 
ova, which we feel sure the P. & O. Company 
would bo glad to convey hither in water cooled 
by ice. We submit the suggestion for the con- 
sideration of those interested in the experiment. 
♦ 
PLANTING IN MATALE EAST AND 
LAGGALA. 
(Continued from paye 218.) 
laggala gap and the traffic between east and 
west — rama'h arrows;— a new world ; the codntry 
ol? the sea of prakuama — a laggala burglar and 
an ara0hchi after a license to shoot him — the 
story of 3 trees valued officially at r708 — 
A planters' MODEL BRIDGE OM THE TELOAMA-OANGA. 
Of all the "Gaps" — and there are some half- 
dozen altogether — leading across the mountain 
ran^e from Matale East to Laggala, that belonging 
to the path from Battotu village through Dangkande 
and Laggala estates seems to have been longest 
in use. Indeed it belongs to the ancient village 
path traversed by the Sinhalese for generations if 
not centuries before the Kandyan forests were 
invaded by European planters. And to this day, 
as we had evidence at almost every turn of the 
road, there is a very considerable native traffic 
between the large native district on the East of 
the range and Rattota and Matale town.-. A good 
deal is done with the aid of tavalam bullocks, 
chiefly owned by Moormen, but still more by 
Sinhalese men carrying each his own burden, 
chiefly small bags of paddy or kurakkan, slung 
over the shoulder, brought across to sell or barter 
for curry stuffs, cloths, <fec. in the Matale bazaars-. 
It quite surprised me in a couple of days' journey 
to see the number of men engaged in this traffic, 
and the large quantity of grain that must in this 
way be supplied from the eastern disiricts. The 
Laggala route through the forest being so well-known 
it was no wonder perhaps that hereabouts some 
of the earliest coffee pioneers commenced work. 
The neighbourhood is redolent of the names of 
Tytler, Strachan, Mackay, Jolly, Duncan, and many 
more of the early days. The grand Dangkande 
rock and mysterious Laggala Gap— cut, according 
to Indian tradition, by a stroke from the shaft of 
Rama while engaged in the search for his lost 
bride Sita,— have over been objects of more than 
ordinary interest. Splendid crops of coffee were 
grown on Dangkande as on the neighbouring Cat- 
taratenne estate in bygone days, and now both 
are gradually but surely being covered with a 
green mantle of tea, fresh and vigorous-looking. 
The carefully planted young tea-fields onCattaratenne 
are especially a sight to see in their promise of good 
things to come. So far, Mr. Watson on Dangkande 
has the only regular tea factory in the locality and it 
receives the leaf from a good many other plant- 
ations, including Moncrief which is ten milos dis- 
tant on tho outermost shelf of tho North Laggala 
range. This is, I suppose , about the greatest distance 
tea leaf ib carried by coolies in Ceylon and yet, I did 
not hear that ihcie was apprcciab e damage. The 
journey is made ea:\ for the coolies by relays 
from the Dangkande end, meeting them Lalf-way, ao 
dividing the trip. Ot course the arrangement is 
only temporary, factories ou the other side being 
only a question of lime. Indeed Laggala estate 
proper, with OUO acres under lea, of its own, will 
wain a very considerable factory, already planned, 
and a steam engine which will cost a pretty penny to 
