48» 
THE TROPICAL AGRtCtJLTtJRiST. [Jan. i, 1894, 
, Since i^rout aooIimatiBicg has been tried her 
I have taken rather an interest in Otters and their' 
habiis, and I have trappcA over 20 of them in the 
lake and river. 
No doubt they play great havoa among fisb, as 
one can see the remains of carp almost any day 
along the edges of the lake, and I have known 
ihem kill 40 or 50 oarp in one night in the small 
breeding pond at the Kaohcheri bungalow, and the 
slaughter seemed to have been for mere sport, as 
xnoBt of the fish were left ia a heap on the bank. 
However it was master otter's last bunt, as he was 
trapped the next night, They have aho taken 
Bome of the trout from this pcud ; etill 
somehow I don't think that they kill many 
of the trout, for when the river has 
been very low, I have marked trout left 
left unharmed for weeks in pools from which they 
oould soaroely escape, and in which otters must 
have been swimming about night after night, as I 
could sea their fresh tracks on the shore next 
moroing. 
The chief food of the otter out here is evidently 
land crabs which are to be found everywhere. 
Otters I believe to be about the commonest wild 
animal in Oeylon as I see numerous marks of them 
wherever I go, low-country as well as high, and 
they are great travellers as I often find their 
tracks a long distance from water but numerous 
as they undoubtedly are they are rarely seen owing 
to their nocturnal habits ; I have only seen one 
my&elf at liberty and that was many years ago 
in a stream in the Knuckles. I have beard of 
residents here, just at dusk or early morning seeing 
some, and no doubt they are occaBionally seen, 
but I expect in some cases as the saying goes, 
"it ia not all gold that glitters," for just after the 
6 otters were seen in the lake the other morning 
a brave sportsman appeared with his gun and started 
to Btalk them ; he soon saw what he took to 
be the otters popping their noses above water 
for breath and after a careful aim he blazed away 
and killed three, but on landing his game tbey 
were found to be carp. These fish go about in 
dense shoals, and on a fine sunny morning they 
love to bask close to the surface of the water. 
I think that otters live chiefly in close rocky 
Jungle, as I notice most of their tuns lead into the 
thick jungle, but they evidently move about a 
great deal, as after catching one or two I often 
won't notice a track for months, when suddenly a 
lot will appear again, 
I have heard of a nest of young otters being 
found under the wooden boards of a cistern in 
sn old pulping>house in Dimbula ; the nest was 
found when the building was being pulled down ; 
but I am surprised, considering their numbers, 
that more otters arc not caught. I have never 
seen a native with one, and though I hunted a 
pack of beagles for many years, they never got on 
an otter and I have rarely heard of other sports- 
men who have come on them in hunting, but no 
doubt a properly trained otter paok would afford 
grand sport in any of our hill districts. 
The otters that I have caught are generally about 
40 inches long. I have seen the skins of a much 
larger variety in Kandy, and I am rather inclined 
to think that there is another and smaller kind than 
the one that frequents Nuwara Eliys, but of this 
X am not sure, — Yours faithfully, 
CHAS. YOUNG. 
CACAO CDLTIYATION IN CEYLON. 
Dear Sib, — I shall feel obliged if you or any of 
your correspondents will kindly inform me as to 
T7bat IB tbe bigheet eleyfttion nt wbicb cacao ia 
grown in the island, its variety and whether 
shade is as eBeential to ite succeseful growth at 
the higher elevations as it is in the low country. 
Any other informaticn on the subject will be 
much esteemtd by— Yours faithfully, M. M. 
[The highest altitude for a ;:ingle tree growing 
of which we have heard is on Keenakelle estate 
Badulla — 4,000 feet above Eea-level, in a bbeltered, 
nook however, and with exceptionally good soil ; 
but it took a long time to come into bearing we 
believe. In Uva and Pucdaloya, there is cacao 
regularly planted up to 3,000 feet, but we do 
not know if Bhaded 7—Eu. T.A. 
JUNGLE EXTEKMINATOH. 
Dead Sib, — I see you had a paper on the " Jungle 
Exterminator," the prospectus of which 1 taw some 
time ago, and I think if you look into it you will 
see that a chemical that destroys the ex.ietiug 
plant life is bound to have a very bad tfieot on 
the soil in which the particles of the plants get 
scattered. 
If it were clearing work for the site of a buildiog, 
of course, it would be all right ; butwbtre repro- 
duction of forest trees or cultivation was wanted, 
the very particles which would otherwise in them- 
selves help to fertilize the soil, would in this case 
be the means of checking vegetation completely. 
Of course I may be wrong in my view of it as 
I don't know what the chemicals used are ; * but 
as far as I can remember the mixture was 
guaranteed to kill even the roots when put into 
them,— Yours truly, OUB FOEESTS. 
— » . 
The Native States (says the Singapore 
Free Press) ought to take s leaf out of the Oejlon 
book. We have touched on tbe matter before and it 
will do no harm to mention it again. Tbe Native 
Slates do not nearly advertiee tbemeelves rnoagh in 
one KSDse. Tbrongh Singapore there streams a cever- 
eai'mg soccession of globe-trottera, often people of 
large means. While in Sicgapore they do the gar jenii, 
tbe waterworki', and have a day at Johore; and tbe 
tale of our attractions is over. If (bey are at 
enterprising as the late 11 r. Harrison of ChicBgo 
they might charter a steamer and go and look 
for tbe equator, cr at least for some place where 
the equator may be conceived to be. But as 
to the Hinterl»nd of the Malay FenioEula they 
knew nothing; Selans^or, Ferak, »nd Pabang are 
probably not even gaograpbical ezpresaioo to them. 
Yet it is to be confessed that there is moch in tbe 
Native States to interest tbe traveller, and there ia 
not a little that might attract tbe investor, Most of 
all, apart from mining which might cr might not 
recommend itself aa a region of eoterprise, there ia 
the poseiblity of investment in planting. To a 
Yankee capitaliet who might think of taking of coSee 
land in the Peninsula as merely one out of hia 
hundred irons in tbe fire, it would be of interest to 
see oofiee estates in bearing, to obat with tbe mana- 
ger<>, to bear of proepects. It would be nothing out 
of the way for him to acquire a traot of laud and 
give an active young planter a billet on it as manager. 
That Bort of thing would occur, and not seldom ; if 
it were encouraged to occur, and it would be for 
the good of tbe State, eepecially a State where tbe 
Chinese practically monopolise tbe tin mining, and tbe 
fostering of planting is left to the European. 
* Of cotu'se some chemicals although poisonous irr 
large quantities would become fertilizers In small 
quantities; but it WO^ll^ take (im§ f^i th? sqU \<) 
Comminute them, 
