THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 
fAUGUST 1, 1893. 
of Salt Fish within the island." He freely pat- 
ronised tlie " Literary and Agricultural Society 
of Colombo" frequently taking the chair at its 
meetings. He toolt a great interest in the develop- 
ment and proper managementof the Pearl Fisherien, 
and was the first to introduce a Diving Bell to 
Ceylon. He encouraged the estahlishnieni in tlie 
South of the island of a " Tangalla Indigo Factory 
Company," becoming its patron liiinself, and grant- 
ing 2,000 acres free of rent for a certain term 
of years, the Superintendent being Mr. John 
Tranchell (a Swedish gentleman of great ability, 
skill and enterprise) whose premature death and 
the departure of the Governor to India, jjut a 
stop to the experiment. The Company was one 
of .50 shares at £37 10s. each. Tlie indigo was 
said to be growing wild. At the other end of 
the Island, in the Jaffna Peninsula, Governor 
Barnes took much interest in the " Potoor 
Well'' with its daily influx and efflux of water, 
and (in 1824) as Tennent relates : — 
In 1824, the Governor, Sir Edward BarneB, con- 
ceived the idea of nsing this apparently inexhaust- 
ible spring for maintaining a perpetual irrigation of 
the surrounding districts. With this view, he caused 
a steam-engine with three pumps to be erected at 
the well of Potoor. But for some reason, which I 
have been unable to ascertain*, the attempt was soon 
abandoned. In reporting the early progress of the 
experiment, the Government officer of the district 
represented that the pumps, though worked incessantly 
for forty-eight hours, and drawing off a prodigious 
quantity of water, had in no degree reduced the 
apparent contents of the well, which rose each day 
precisely an inch and a half between the hours of 
seven in the morning and one o'clock in the after- 
noon; and again between eight o'clock and twelve at 
night — falling to an equivalent extent in the intervals. 
The natives are perfectly familiar with all these 
phenomena, and believe that the well communicates 
with the sea at the Kieremalie, near Kangesen-torre, 
a distance of seven miles, from which they affirm 
that a subterranean stream flows inwards. 
Colonel Campbell relates how it was a saying 
in the Service in his day that no one who was 
not prepared to work with all the energy at 
his command, would do for Edward Barnes. By 
the Governor's wish, he repaired Galle fortifica- 
tions and planted trees on the ramparts. The 
Kirime Canal, North of Tangalla, was due to Sir 
Edward Barnes and was considered a great work 
in its day. At its completion the Governor 
personally distributed honours and gold medals 
to the Headmen engaged in the work. St. 
Sebastian lock on the Colombo Lake was also 
Sir Edward Barnes' work to permit of navigation 
between the roadstead and the inland canals 
via the lake. 
One of the most appreciative notices of Sir 
Edward Barnes' a'dministration is that afforded 
by the late Capt. James Stewart, Master- Atten- 
dant of Colonibo, in his "Notes on Ceylon." 
He relates with reference to the progress of the 
Kandy road : — 
"When the portrait of the late Sir Edward Barnes 
was placed in the Kandy Library, the natives flocked 
from the provinces to see it. An old Chief, wno had 
been a rebel in 1818, was so struck with the likeness 
that he was heard to exclaim— '' A.11 the same, come 
back again! Only not speak!" When the natives 
of the interior visit Colombo, they have been seen to 
bring flowers and place them at the foet of the statue 
of Sir Edward Barnes as symbols of their reverence . 
*I have since been told that lands irrigated by 
the water procured from the well were found to yield 
no increase, the grain reaped being scarcely equal to 
the quantity of Beed sown in the ground, 
and not long since, when hie son was travelling In 
Ceylon with a friend, the renter of a ferry, on dis- 
covering who one of his passengers was, ran and laid 
the money which had been paid him at Mr. Barnes' 
feet, declaring that he conld not receive money from 
his late Rajah's son, and he was with difficulty pre- 
vailed on to receive payment of the tolls. 
Stewart calls Sir Edward Barnes tlie " Prince 
of Governors," and shows how for three years 
before he left he had a revenue in excess of 
expenditure. In the early j)art of 1829, he sent 
his favourite Royal Engineer Oliicer, Capt. Daw- 
son, with Capt. Stewart to inspect the several 
scours and channels in Adam's Bridge and to 
report on the im])rovement of the Pamljan Pass- 
age. A spirit of progress was generally infused 
into the community, and in 1830 (8th June) a 
meeting was actually held at Colombo to consider 
a plan for establishing steam communication 
between India and England, via the Bed Sea, 
and between Colonil«j and the Presidency towns. 
Col. Campbell who, like everybody who ever 
served under him, is full of admiration of the 
Governor, has an interesting reminiscence of Sir 
Eihvard Barnes' visit to Kunmegala on his first 
carriage drive by the new road en route to 
Kandy .• — 
(From Campbell's "Excursions in Ceylon.") 
In going up to Kandy, Sir Edward Barnes stayed 
th ee days with us here, when he looked closely into 
every thing that we had done and were doing, bat 
particularly at the roads; and was pleased to approve 
of our exertions to meet his views and wishes. 
Forbes shews how greatly the new road was 
appreciated : — 
( from Forbes' s "Eleven Years in Ceylon." ) 
From Colombo I returned to Brandy by the mail- 
coach and remarked the immense improvement 
that had taken place in the face of the country 
near the great road which was opened under the 
Government of Sir Edward Barnes. When 1 first 
visited Kandy in 1828, this line was unfinished ; and 
the numerous obstacles which had been overcome 
or were in progress of removal, could not be over- 
looked : the rocks which had been blasted, the em- 
bankments that had been raised, nere then bare ; 
and the forests through which we passed showed how 
much of energy and perseverance were required to 
trace the road which was then forming. Now these 
obstacles would hardly be credited by any one who 
had not previously seen the country ; for the shat- 
tereJ rocks and huge embankments were overgrown 
with vegetation, and the dense forest had almost 
disappeared from the vicinity of the road. In place 
of the rumbling ford and ferry of the Maha-oya, 
we crossed an elegant bridge at Mawenella, the 
design of Captain, now Lieutenant-Colonel Brown, 
R.E.; and, instead of the clumsy ferryboat at 
Peradenia, a light and elegant arch of satinwood, 
two hundred and five feet in length, spanned the 
Mahawelli-ganga. vThis was constructed by Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Fraser, Deputy Quarter- Master- 
General.) Immediately adjoining the bridge, in a 
bend of the river, and four miles from Kandy, is 
the Botanical Garden, a pretty spot, which owes 
as much to nature as to art for its beauties. 
The last time I passed this way, in 1828, the 
able officer. Captain Dawson of the Royal Engineers, 
who had traced and directed the formation of this 
road, was in rnde health and buoyant spirits : now 
his lofty monumental column gleamed on the 
summit of the Kadnganawe pass, the most elevated 
part of the road, and one thousand seven hundred 
and thirty feet above the level of the sea ; his 
intrepid spirit and iron frame had sunk beneath 
the severe trials he underwent in the zealous discharge 
I of his public duties. 
' Here is an incident of policy :— ? 
