04 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[July r, 1881. 
better to-day. Grub, leaf disease and other enemies 
would have been less prevalent; the capital outlay 
would have been much loner ; and time would have 
been given to learn whether coffee, tea, or cinchona 
was the most suitable product to cultivate. We re- 
member, in visiting the Dimbula district so far back 
as 1872, and hearing on all sides the boast of one 
man planting 300, 500, 700 or even 1,000 acres with 
oofi'ee in one year, recalling the fact that iu the 
"day? of old," when work was more carefully done, 
a titty acres clearing was considered enough for one 
planter in a season. However, we may take it for 
granted now, that the era is past when purchasers 
of blocks of forest-laud in Ceylon of 200 and 300 
acres ustd to enter forthwith into felling contracts 
for the whole to be clerared in one season, in order 
to be planted with coffee. The order of the day with 
our planters now is, for a would-be proprietor to 
plant gradually, 50 or at most 100 acres in a season 
and with a variety of products. Let our neighbours 
in Southern India who are not benefited or affected 
by the "gold fever," take a note and profit by the 
dearly-bought experience of their Ceylon brethren. 
A LOW-COUNTRY TRIP THROUGH " TERRA 
INCOGNITA " :— RAKWANA TO BENTOTA. 
For a good many years, we had been pressing on 
the Eakwana planters to explore the country westward 
between their mountain range and the sea, with re- 
ference to the question of Radway Extension as well 
as to the opening of new districts. We are much 
obliged to the gentlemen who at length undertook 
the journey, and more particularly to "H. W.", who 
has furnished us with the following very interesting 
notes. It will be seen that, while there is no great 
encouragement offered at present for a railway or for 
pioneer planters, yet that the picture is not all darkly 
shaded. There are resources for cattle- feeding, for 
developing a timber trade, for gemming, and even 
for Liberian coffee and cocoa planting from Kabaragala 
westwards, which shew how great a change might be 
effected by road or rail and the introduction of 
capital. We feel sure that the report now furnished 
011 this line of country will not be thrown away, but 
that it will be the means of directing the attention 
both of the Government and the public to what has 
hitherto been an overlooked and neglected district. 
From the Gongala Range to the Sea. 
We had long meditated a trip from Rakwana to 
I Sen to ta. A plan of the country to be crossed was 
obtained from the Surveyor General, but it was little 
more than a sketch, and, as it turned out, we found 
that only three Europeans were known to have crossed 
the dividing ridge between Kukulugama on the Kudu- 
gama, an affluent of the Kaluganga and the Ben- 
tota tiiver. One of these was Dr. Thwaites, who 
botanized in that country, and one a Government 
Agent of Ritnapura. It was veritably a terra in- 
cognita we were to explore. We could take no 
hors< s. and we had to trust a good deal to our good 
uck for food supply. 
We started towards the end of February ; it was a 
little late and the weather was showery, but a young 
moon promised its assistance as our journey progressed. 
Our par 1 y consisted of our two selves, an appu, four- 
teen coolies, and two Sinhalese guides. We c died for 
the latter at the first Wllage, where we found a harvest 
festival was being kept, the men all standing enqueue 
two by two with hands joined and uprated before 
a temporary altar at which a young man officiated, 
intoning a service, and at the end of each sentence 
the villagers joined in with a vigorous "Hoch," 
which, if more than usually loud, elicited smiles of 
approbation. 
j The morning was far advanced before we felt that 
I the distance covered warranted our stopping for break- 
I fast, which we took at the fool of some giant bain- 
j boos on the banks of ihe stream we had f llowed all 
j the morning. The stream here was broad and shady 
with delicionsly cool looking pools that invited to 
I bathe, and, while breakfast was being laid out, we 
I had a swim and a change. 
Our course so far had been a descending one, but 
we were now well away irom tlie hills, and crossing 
the river entered upon a series of flats that succeeded 
one another with hardly a break to Kukutugama. 
These flats are narrow and border One or both sides 
of the river and are laid out as paddy fields ot 
planted with minevi, which just now was young aud 
of a bright-green colour. Sweet-potato plots also 
abounded, and these and the young minevi were care- 
fully and very neatly palisaded, A few stiles would 
have been very useful, as our loaded coolios had fre- 
quently great difficulty in getting over the fence. 
We halted at Pennapellii for dinner at tbe Vel- 
Vidana's house. I may as well here remark that 
we had good and sometimes v c ry good house accom- 
modation all through our journey, stretchers and some- 
times jakwood bedsteads and mattresses being at 
our disposal. We goi a few snipe before dinner, 
which we took by the light of a kerosene tamp. An 
outhouse afforded space for the coolies' cookiug opera- 
tions, which were continued with great gusto, tlie rice 
being ad libitum, and only measured by their con- 
taining powers and tlie absence or happy presence of 
e-ich article of curry-stuff being freely commented 
upon. 
We carried our guns next morni"g, getting an oc- 
casional shot at a snipe, and breakfasted at the 
Muhandiram's bungalow at Wedayala — a new house 
and built on a strange-looking site high above the 
river. He explained that it was out of tbe way of 
the floods, which are the bane of this country. After 
this, we noticed that all the buildings were on eleva- 
tions, and tbe alluvial deposits forming these strangely 
rlat lands were now accounted for. What quantity of 
rain falls here in the twelve months is not known., 
but it must be very great, and leads to floods and 
famines, one of which is alluded to in an Administra- 
tion Report of a former Government Agent of Rt>tua. 
nura, as having caused the abandonment of thirteen 
(13) villages in the Kukulu Korale. 
At Delgoda, which by the foot-paths is 25 miles 
from Ratnnpuro, we stayed two days at the Ritemahat- 
meya's new bungalow which he gave up to our use. 
He was expecting the Assistant Government Agent 
from Rntnapur*, then Mr. C. A. Murray, who came 
to Kukulugama partly to receive the paddy dues, but 
chiefly to see this part of his province. 
We employed the time in ascending the Wepanagala, 
two miles from Delgoda, which is 2,350ft. high, and 
from which we had a good view of the country. Chena 
everywhere, in the hollows and on the hills, nothing but 
chena: suggestive of a large population with an insati- 
able desire for burning huge areas. The population is 
really very small, the rainy season is a long one, aud I 
tried, but failed, to accouut for the total absence of 
b g juugle. Ten miles to the south ran the Sinha 
Rija forest, runnin from the Morawak Korale in an 
unbroken line westward for some fifteen miles, al- 
most uninhabited aud away from available water 
carriage : witb this grand exception, the laudscape pre* 
sented to the view a rough broken country , all cheiiaed. 
It may be that the constant rainfall is prejudicial 
to the growth of the jungle trees. The iuteuiahut- 
maya told us it was usually fine in January aud 
February, and sometimes in December, but wet all 
the otlier nine months, and that the fielas are fre- 
quently flooded. 
The advent of the Government Agent at Kukulu- 
gama caused a general movement to that village. The 
