756 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [May 1, 190L 
CLARK'S BOOK ON "SPORT IN 
CEYLON." 
{Bij ''Old Colonist") 
What a very excellent little book Clark's 
" Sport in Ceylon " is ! Nothing I have ever 
before read on sport has so fascinated nie 
—and I have often read all tliat Baker, 
Forl;>es and Tennent have said on the subject. 
Clark has got hold of an admirable literary 
style, which Avould adorn any subject, and 
which he wields with much discretion. No 
sporting slang there : no bombastic boasting, 
and no butchery. His work, indeed, shows 
him to be more of a naturalist than a so- 
called sportsman. I wish, however, I had 
got hold of such a work 40 years ago ; it 
would have added much to the enjoyment 
of my life in Ceylon and I rather envy the 
lot of the young novice who now takes up 
such a safe and pleasant guide. 
My only doubt is as to whether " Sport " 
give^ a sufficient indication of the value of 
the book. The title has so degenerated that 
one is apt to hght shy of the drivel under 
such a heading in the Daily Press. 
In my youthful days, my own notions 
of Sport were such as might have been in- 
spired by Goldy's "tuneless pipe" and even 
now 
" The gay grandsire, skilled in gestic lore. 
Can frisk beneath the burden of three-score. " 
I too have had my elephant hunt in my day, 
though I never cared to tell the tale ! Stand- 
ing one day in the end of my verandah at 
Everton, I "saw, right opposite, a huge ele- 
phant on the top of the Cabaragala cliff, 
which rises perpendicularly to a height of SOU 
to 600 feet. 
The monster stood coolly wagging his trunk 
to and fro as he surveyed with evident in- 
terest the basy valley below. 'Twas a grand 
sight, enough to arouse the most dormant of 
sporting spirits. 
1 had an English rifle which I shouldered 
with an air ©f "who says Im afraid?" 
It took me some hours to climb up through 
the forest, and when I did reach the rock— no 
elephant was there, but the fresh droppings 
showed where he had stood. On the whole 
rather relieved that my pluck was not put 
to the test, I took a leisurely look at old 
Rakwana, and then prepared to descend. 
Scarcely, however, had I moved from the 
spot, when I heard a nmffled tread and 
crashing of branches, and sure as I m a 
living sinner a herd of elephants passed 
within easy touch of me ! 1 stood quietly 
at the back of a tree within a few yards of 
the edge of the precipice, my heart dunting 
audibly till I saw the last of the herd move 
ott' towards Kukulu Korle 1 
1 escaped unscathed, but had I read such a 
book as " Sport in the Lowcountry of Ceylon" 
I would have known better how to go about 
the business. 1 should certainly recommend 
every young man going out to Ceylon, 
whether as visitor or planter, sportsman or 
naturalist, to read this handy and eminently 
useful little book. 
Mr. C, I think, rather underestimates the 
extent of forest in the Central Province 
^Qd,a3 to being loat in the jungle, I wonder he 
does not recommend following the first trickle 
of water— which has been my invariable 
rule when everything else failed and by doing 
so one cannot go very far amiss, in an 
Island like Ceylon. 
THE SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION FROM 
PERADENIYA TO OUR RUBBER- " 
GROWING DISTRICTS. 
Mr. Herbert Wright, Scientific Assistant 
at Peraoeniya, whom we stated in our issue 
of 16th uit. to have started on an import- 
ant tour in the Western and Sabaraganmwa 
Provinces, has now returned. Though re- 
luctant to give details of his mission until 
he deals with it officially, we have elicited 
from Mr. ^Vright that he has obtained im- 
portant results in connection with the yield 
of milk in the indigenous Palaquium trees 
known by the Sinhalese names of "Kiri- 
hembeliya" and " Mol-pedda." The Malayan 
species of Palaquium have hitherto been the 
source of the different sorts of guttapercha ; 
but these are now becoming extinct, owing 
to the wasteful method of cutting down 
the trees for the purpose of collecting the 
latex. The affinity of the Ceylon flora 
to that of the Malayan has sug- 
gested that our species of Palaquium 
might also yield giitta of a marketable 
value, a supposition which now seems justi- 
fied. From the copious material for detailed 
and microscopic investigation, which we 
gatlier that Mr. Wright has brought back with 
hiin, it appears, that there are at least 
two species of this tree in Ceylon which 
are deserving of attention from an eco- 
nomic point of view. These have been found 
to yield, in point of quantity, even a greater 
amount of milk than most Para rubber 
trees in Ceylon. Most important of all, how- 
ever, is the fact that Mr. Wright has found, 
by a certain method of tapping, that these 
yield the latex freely without being felled, 
which not only saves labour, but also the 
trees, an o})vious advantage over the Mala- 
yan method. 
Asked as to the nature of the soil in 
which the trees are found in their natural 
state, "practically nothing but wet sand," 
is the reply. Their slow rate of growth, we are 
informed, however, is against their becoming 
an adjunct to planting products. Many other 
species of the family Sapotacas are chancter- 
ised Ijv the presence of milk, though but few 
are as yet of commercial importance. A spe- 
cies of Mimusops in the West Indies furnishes 
what is known as " Gum balata." 
TEA PLANTING IN CAROLINA, 
U. STATES. 
The American Revieiv of Mevieivs for Mai-eh 
has an illustrated ariicle by " Leonora Beck 
Ellis" on American Tea-Gardens, Actual and 
Possible. Most of the illustrations are 
familiar having done service in some of Dr. 
Shephard's pamphlets before now. Of course, 
the paper has to do with Pinehurst ; but we 
learn that, so far back as 1804, a French 
botanist, Michaqx, planted tlie first tea bu^beg 
