442 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Jak. r, 1894. 
sea to the horizon, and for a few minutes the apex was 
doubled, and so clearly marked that the little shed 
over the impression of buddha's Foot win perfectly 
distinct in the shadow. Another most curious effect 
was when the mist had lain deep in the valley below, 
between the great Peak ran^e and the opposite ranjjc 
of Rackwanie, it was an exact representation of tlie 
sea; the clouds rolliiw against the oase of the moun- 
tains resembling the surf beating against the cliffs 
which seemed to project into the sea, the points of the 
hills peeping through the mist appeared like beautiful 
little islands. 
At another time, looking down from the cone, a 
small white cloud, the size of a man's hand, might be 
seen fioating upwards, about midway between the masi 
of vapour sea below and the to)) of the peak. Home- 
times, under certain conditions of the atniospln re, this 
little bit of fleecy vapour would suddenly expand into 
a huge dark cloud, and come rolling up the cone, ap- 
parently lashing it as if with its utmost fury; a d 
then suddenly envelope it with a dark mantle— a 
strange contrast to the clear blue atmosphere through 
which but a few minutes before objects might have 
been seen sixty or seventy miles distant. 
Many were las adventures during; this tsurvey 
work whicli carried liini from Adam's Peak to 
the top of Piduriitalagala, and thence to Nania- 
nakulikande above BaduUa. His interest in the 
" Wiklerness of the Peak '' continued very great, 
and if Capt. Skinner had iiad his way, it 
would have been thoroughly opened u]) by roads 
in Governor Stewart Mackenzie's day when the 
"rusli" into planting, and especially Anibega- 
jnuwa, first commenced. AVhat will the plant- 
n" residents in Dimhula, Dikoya and Maskeliya 
say of the following letter addressed to the 
Governol' of Ceylon over 53 years ago, as well 
indeed, of the above account of the first survey of 
their districts, by this true Pioneer of Planting and 
Civilisation ? :— 
Ambagamuwa, 11th August, 1840. 
My Dear Sir, — I am very sorry that your Excel- 
lency's letter of the 1st instant has remained so long 
unanswered. 1 received it on the eve of my departure 
from - olombo, and being destined for this place, as 
there are points in it that I could only re))ly to by 
information which I expected to receive here, I ven- 
tured to defer the acknowledgment of it till now. On 
my arrival here on the 7th, I found that both the Siu-- 
veyors, Mr. Bagenall and Mr. Sargent, from whom I 
made inquiries as to the lands which had already been 
appropriated in this vicinity, had gone down to Palaru- 
pettia witli Captain Lillie, and it was only last evening 
that I met them. He gave me such a sweeping list of 
Jots applied for, that I feel it would be quite hopeless 
iiiV attempting to describe them to you. I will there- 
fore request Mr. Norris to send your Excellency a 
copy of the general sketch of the whole, which I under- 
stand he has, and by which you will perceive that the 
margin of the Great Wilderness of tlie Peak (in this 
particular direction) is tolerably well allotted. 
I am sorry that Austtruther and Wodehouse are so 
late in the field, for I «hould have preferred seeing 
them in this neighbourhood, instead of either of the 
two, for which the latter has such a predilection, viz. 
Ballangoddi and on the ascent to the Peak from Ratna- 
pura. I fear they will both (and all the south-western 
falls of the great mountain zone) be too much exposed 
to the violence of the south-west monsoon winds, and 
at the elevation they would require for coffee would be 
subject to continued fogs for seven or eight months 
out of the twelve. 
Ballangoddi has the additional disadvantage that it 
ig thirty rhiles from water carriage by a most imprac- 
ticable native path along which a loaded bullock could 
not travel, and the lands they might select may pos- 
sibly teu 9r twelve miles 9fl this toad. Tbjs is a 
grave matter, selecting a site for an estate on which 
parties seem determined to go ahead, at the pace A. 
and W. seem bent on. Mr. Turnour s land here is 
tliat piece which your Elxcellency went over after a 
; five o dock breakfast on the banks of the Attella Oya, 
' where you n ay remember was a pretty litile waterfall. 
, It is described by all who have seen it a» the finest 
I piece of land in all this neighbourhood. I saspeci we 
saw the worst portions of it on that occasion. Mr. 
Carr'e and my land is the sloping forest on the rignt 
bank (within the elbow) of the Mahavtlla Ganga, the 
villages of /^iiibegamoa being our northern boundary; 
but as regards relative positions of this and other 
estates (!!!) Mr. Norris s surveying sketch will explain 
them better than I can. I have asked bira to Beud 
yon a copy of it. 
AVith all these purchases and applications, the 
demand for land appears to be just as insatiable as 
ever, while the general cry is " \Vhere shall we go to 
look for land?" In vain 1 proclaim that there is a 
choice of between 'I'.iO.ixK) and 30,000 acres of the 
finest forest land in Ceylon within the M'ilderness of 
the Peak, possessing in the most eminent decree every 
requisite of soil and climate, far above anytning to be 
found on these outskirts of it. 
"How are we to get at it ".' " is the not unnatural 
sequence, for although 1 have spent many dreary 
months in it, and there is not a valley I have not tra- 
versed, nor a feature, from the hi):heHt point of which, 
and from the top of tht- highest tree to be found on it, 
I have not attempted to sketch in my rcconnaisance. I 
know that many a man might dive into the depth of 
500 square miles of unbroken pathless forest, who 
would never find his way out of it again. 
"Will you Sir, just open your map andlookatthe 
distance between Kotmalie Valley and Ballangoddi. 
and consider that by opening a bridle path, aDdDoild- 
ing two small temporary Rest Houses between those 
places, you would open out a country such as has not 
vet been presented to th« capitahst; a large area of 
land with a climate more like that of Southern Europe 
than a region withm 7° or 8° of the equator, and m 
which I believe may be produced most Eoropean 
vegetation. 
I respectfully urge upon your Excellency that the 
object is well worthy of the trifling outlay it will cost. 
I leave out of the question the great advantage which 
would result from establishing a direct communication 
between the central and southern provinces of the 
island. Instead of. as is now the case, a traveller 
being compelled to go round the base of the mountains, 
descending from Kandy to Pallapauy. thence bv 
Ruwanvvella and Ballangoddi, or if by the eastward, 
then over the highest mountains of the country 
Niiwar* EUiya, and thence bv one of the three follow- 
ing passes, viz. GaUagamwa, Idulgashenia, or between 
th t and Allipot. 
I feel pretty confident that I might offer to open a 
.5-feet path, build and furnish the two Rest Houses, 
from the proceeds of the sale of land along the line 
during the first six months after it was opened. I 
trust your Excellency will evcuse me if I am permit- 
ting myself to address you too freely on this subject : 
I feel intensely interested in it. Who can view this 
exquisite scenery, enjoy this perfect climate ^at pre- 
sent the themometer is between 67* and 68") without 
feeling that it would be conferring a blessing npon 
liumanitj- to be the means of removing some 20.000 of 
the panting, half-famished creaturrs from the burning, 
sandy plains of Sou' hern India to such (compara- 
tive) paradise ; benefiting not only them, the colony, 
the individual by means of whose capital they would 
be brought here, but "Iso our own native Singhalese 
people inhabiting the margin of this wilderness, living 
as they now are like monkeys, for safety compelled to 
hide in places scarcely accessible to man. to render 
their dwe ling inaccessible to el phants. Many totally 
una ')e to cu tivate a grain of paddy, or to procure a 
morsel of salt, wou d find hemselves attracted to a 
new centre within this, at present, trackless wilder- 
ness, which (although I have often been jeered at for 
stating it), I kdvisedly repeat, is destined ere long to 
become the garden of Cej'loD, sucii a garden ae has a9^ 
