Jan. 2, 1899.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
491 
THE "FLIGHT OF BUTTERFLIES." 
Dear Sir,— Nob having seen an Observer for 
several days, 1 may be a purveyor of stale news 
in writing about a flight of butteiflies which 
I witnessed on Friday last, December 2iid. In a 
very unscientific and* aniateurisii way I take an 
interest (fed largely by the stimulating intellec- 
tual pabulum supplied in your valuable journal) 
in what scientific people conveniently label the 
" fauna and flora " of Ceylon. A remark of yoiirs 
a few weeks ago set me on the look-out for the an- 
nual flight of butterflies. I saw nothing of the 
kind till the day above-mentioned, when between 
PelmaduUa and' Madampe in the Sabaragamuwa 
Province, I saw one of the thickest fliglits I 
have ever witnessed. At some points the coach 
drove through clouds of butterflies. Their flight 
was distinctly and almost unvaryingly due South 
to North. They evidently preferred to keep the 
Government road where its course was not too 
tortuous. This preference may be due to the 
fact that the road is hotter than jungle or 
paddy-field, and this m.atter of temperature is, 
I am persuaded, one of the most controlling fac- 
tors in this annual phenomenon. The flights 
only take place on roasting hot days. Since Fri- 
day tliere has been no repetition except a very 
miich milder one on Monday ; all the days since 
having been cloudy. If the two hours of bright 
sun on Monday had continued a bit longer we 
should have witnes^^ed a butterfly display equal 
to that of three days before. As it was, the 
creatures began to get so warmed up to their 
work that I noticed they often went full-tilt at 
a wall of a verandah that seemed to ';ome in 
their way. The velocity of their flight is not the 
least remarkable matter. 
A couple of months ago we were overrun 
with caterpillars everywhere. These caterpillars dis- 
appeared, changing into the chrysalis state. Per- 
liaps a specially iiot .»un-shinv day assists their 
emergence from this state of hibernation and 
tends" to bring them out in the swarms that so 
interest us, and the "flight" as we call it is 
just the joy of the new life asserting itself in 
the love of travel and quest of adventuie. What 
draws them onwards and directs their fliy;ht ? 
The love of warmth, perhaps, and the search for 
warmer and yet warmer places. Why do they 
all go in one direction? Why, ah why. but for 
thelaw of gregariousness which governs so much 
ot the conduct of even more intelligent creatures ? 
ROLLING-STONE. 
THE INDIAN AND CEYLON CURRENCY 
QUESTION. 
Claverton Manor, Bath, Nov. 2.3. 
Sir,— I enclose copy of a letter I have received 
from 'the Secretary of the Indian Currency Com- 
mittee and of a communication I have today for- 
warded for its consideration. The Secretary's 
letter lends no support to the " Times of Ceylon's" 
ott'-hand view that my paper might just as well 
have been torn up for all the chance there is of 
the Indian (iovernment altering its Is 4(1 rupee 
rate IMy arguments apply with equal force to 
India as" to Ceylou. Ceylon has failed in its ad- 
vocacy of silver.'as it inevitably must have failed. 
Let it remember the words of Milton : 
" What though the field ho loat, all is not lost," 
and display the same energy in advocating a sound 
cause as it lately has an unsound one and 
the Is 3.1 rupee may yet become an aeconiplished 
fact.— Yours truly, • E- H. S. 
Treaanry, S.W., Nov. 22. 
Dear Sir, — I have to acknowledge the receipt of 
your letter of thj 18th inst., further on the subject 
of Indian and Ceylon currency. 
In reply, I have to say that your previous letter 
has been printed for the Indian Currency Committee, 
precisely as the Ceylon Planters' Memorial. If you 
desire to make a further communication, I will under- 
take to circulate it forthwitii lo my Committee who 
welcome any practical suggestions from those who 
are familiar with the important question referred 
to the Committee. — Yours faithfully, 
BOBEBT ChALMEES. 
E. Harcourt Skrine, Esq. 
Claverton Manor, Bath, Nov. 23. 
To the Members of the Indian Currency Committee, 
c/o Robert Chalmers, Esq., Secretary, The Treasury. 
Dear Sirs, — As Mr. T. N. Christie has been ex- 
a,mined at great length on the Currency question, 
as it affects the Ceylon planter, by your Committee, 
I venture to request that I may be allowed to sup- 
plement my own paper in support of a different view 
on the same subject by the following remarks: — 
Whereas the Ceylon Planters' Memorial in effect 
represents the views of the local agents of dividend- 
earning Tea Companies of recent growth, my con- 
nection with Ceylon dates from 1872, during all 
which time I have remained in possession of my 
estates as a bona fide cultivator and continued to 
develop them through all the vicissitudes of produc- 
tion. On the ground, therefore, of the producer I 
claim to speak with experience, if not with autho- 
rity. The producer, however, represents but one of 
at least three conflicting interests affected by the 
Currency question, and I can well understand that his 
evidence should be limited in just proportion. 
My own views however are not those gained by a 
Producer only for I have bad quite as much ex- 
perience as an Importer of Manchester Goods. During 
the three years which marked the first great fall of 
silver — 1876 to 1879 — I was in charge ot a busineBS 
house in Southern India and was fully sensible of 
the injurious effect of the depreciation of the Rupee 
on Import business. Whatever therefore my private 
feelings might be, as a Producer, of the advantages 
of cheap silver, its disadvantages to the Importer 
were equally apparent. I venture to think th^t 
this dual experience is one not generally shared in 
by the witnesses you have examined. Moreover since 
my Memorial was sent in much additional light has 
been thrown on the feasibility of a Gold Standard 
in India and it is in conuection with this question 
th?,t I should like to supplement my paper. lu il 
I advocated the transition from a silver currency to 
a Gold oue at_ls. Stl. per Rupee, having for its basis 
a Gold Standard and Currency Coin, to be minted in 
India, the equivalent of RIO. 
It has been remarked to me that others have ad« 
vocated Is. 2d.'and others again Is., why then should 
a Is. 3d. basis be accepted more than either of these ? 
On the same argument it might be added that the 
Government proposal of Is. 4ct. is equally fanciful, 
but I venture to submit that the claim to transfer 
at Is. 33. has alone, of all others, a logical basis iu- 
as-much-as that was approximately the rate current 
when the Blints were closed. From a purely logical, 
and therefore just, poiut of view, the transfer should 
then and there have been effected and any forcing 
up of the v.ilue of the Rupee subsequently is, on 
economical principles, indefensible. As it is my duty 
to confine ray arguments to Ceylon I shall shew that 
the Is. 4d. rate is injurious to the interests of both 
Labor and Capital in that country. 
My ivlemorial has shewn that under the circnm- 
sauces of Tea— the labor wage is abnormally high at 
present. The Tea industry, which could afford to 
pay that wage with a is. 3d. Rupee, cannot do ao 
it a Is. 4d. basis is insisted on. If this industry 
— on which the Island Revenue dfpends — is to be 
sustained it must be by either lowering the rates 
of cooly pay or by giving effect to the logical and 
