568 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Feb. 1, 1899. 
the classical "Seeta-Ela" conies tumbling or 
purling along — according to the season — carrying 
us back to the old-world Hindu stories of llama 
and Havana and Hanunian, the monkey-king 
who bridged the passage to Lanka which some 
of us would now fain see crossed by the iron- 
way and lacomotivc ; those friends of mankind 
which have filled this nineteenth century with 
greater wonders ciian ever entereil into the 
brains of the old mythologists to conceive. How 
Seeta lied to the highest mountain regions of 
Ceylon and was there guarded until rescued, 
and how henceforth for the Kandyans, both on 
the Uva and Kolmale sides, these higher regions 
between Pedro and Totapola, Hakgala and Kiri- 
galpotta became sacred to demoniac agents and 
agencies and every stream had its tutelary L'od- 
dess and every boulder or mountain its Yakko, 
need only be mentioned. And so we pass dewn 
one of the splendid roads with which the genius 
of Sir Edwartl Barneis and the indomitable per- 
severance of a Skinner scored the mountain as 
well as the low country, thereby driving away 
many superstitions and finally establishing the 
*' Roman Peace " so essential to the welfare of 
the Sinhalese as of so many more subject peoples. 
But our way lies down, down ; we mark the 
wonderfully diversified colouring of the mantle 
of forest alongside the delightfully clear warb- 
ling stream, the miniature cataract or quiet 
trout pool, until suddenly there bursts on the Ken, 
the first view ot the Uva panorama of far-extended 
grassy patana, sparkling rivulet, bright rice- 
field, darker tea-field, or bare clearing, backed by 
Namunukulakanda, which rises above the capital 
of the .ancient Principality to the height of 6,680 
feet above the sea, or 30 feet higher than the 
well-known Elbeddekande between Dinibula and 
Dikoya. How well we recall our first glimpse of 
the mountain when following the tracks of Gov- 
ernor " Sir Hercules Kobinson " on his first visit 
to Uva in 1865 and which ended for us in a 
memorable couple of days under the hospitable 
roof-tree of old Thomas Wood on Spring Valley. 
But we have arrived opposite the Gardens and 
the view extends round to Haputale with its 
wide extending ranges so fully occupied first by 
coffee, next cinchona and finally by tea fields, and 
the smoke of the locomotive reminds us of the still 
more memorable ride. It was that of a Colombo 
merchant, a visiting agent and editor from Gongalla 
through Balangoda to Lunugala and thence to 
Cannavarella and back to Dimbula, during which, 
when lying in front of the old Bandarawela 
resthouse waiting for the inevitable " moragie " to 
be caught, spitted and served, we first conceived 
the idea of the Uva Railway, and there and then 
we thought out the heads of the Memorial which 
afterwarcls secured a Commission and Survey for 
the Nawalapitiya-Haputale Railway. Days of 
old indeed ! Where now is the band of Uva and 
Dimbula-Dikoya pioneers who upheld that great 
effort after transmountain Railway Extension — 
Cruwell and Rose, Kelly and Wni.. Smith all 
cone; while Logic in the farther East and 
Pineo in the far West remind us that C. A. 
Tottenham who drew up for us the very first 
estimate ever framed for a locomotive line from 
Nawalapitiya to Haputale Pass, is once more in 
the land where he did so much good work, busy 
and interested as ever in the development of its 
bidden wealth. 
But here are the Gardens— the entrance bear- 
in<» the well-known year 1861, the one in 
\YUich we fii'sii laii<i«d m Ceylon, mi which 
Kaw in the East, Clements Markhani with his 
precious burden of cinchona plants and 
seed from the South Americnn jungles, the 
beginning of the importauts industry whicU has 
been fraught with bo much benefit to the millious 
of India, China as well as of mauy Eurupeau aiul 
American lands. We first saw Hakgala (janleos 
in lH6.j and each successive visit sine* lias indi- 
cated progress and improvements. Poor old 
MacNicol, the first Superintendent, h victim 
to dysentery, would not know the place it ha 
were to 
Revisit the glimpses of the moon. 
The place, is, of course, far more iuteresling to one 
who has seen it in the day of snuill Uiin^n and has 
kept note of its development, than to the c;it.uHl 
vbitor who sees it for the firi>t time. Fioin the 
economic iioint of view, how much benefit has l>een 
derived from Hakgala? In cinchona alone, it 
afforded the bridge which kept heart in lialf of 
our then cofTee planters until tea (also largely fioiii 
Hakgala) came to their deliverance. Then, nearly 
all the Australian Eucalyjiti and Acacia.'i, with tlie 
many representatives of Ciipressus, Cryptomerias, 
Auracarias and other ornamental forest and 
garden trees have come from Hakgala ; while in 
more modern days, the colony is indebte<l to th« 
same (i^ardens and its most intelligeot Superintend- 
ent for the introduction, or bringius to light, 
of exceedingly useful vegetables and fruit wUicb 
liave added greatly to the food products of the 
l)eo|ile, especially in our upland regions. We nee<l 
only mention the prolific tree tomato aud 
mountain jinpaya, the invaluable " cho-cho " 
(vegetable marrow of Uva as it may be cAlled, 
though introduced by Mr. Nock from the We»» 
Indies), the " Arracacha," and the manj' English 
berries as well varieties of potato firi-t tried at 
Hakgala. Humourous old Win. Kellow (how well 
wc recall the stawart Cornishman and his equally 
burly but wiser and more responsible brother 
Mark) as he used to tell us that he manured his 
potato field just below Hakgala with egg-slielU 
and so produced the clean shiny coats upon them ! 
— but that the porcupines were so devoted to 
them that when they rooted up whole drills and 
ate till they could eat no more, they rolled about 
until they got a potato transfixed on each quill and 
so carried off a feast for the following d.-ij- : It 
was the same humourist who used to say that 
the flower he liked best was cauliflower I And 
there was old, rubicund George Cotton — as round 
as a barrel and as full of laughter at a joke as 
an egg is lull of meat — who becan life as a slim 
young jockey and came to Ceylon like the Kel- 
lows and Fowler in the train of Sir 'Samuel 
Baker and his brother. AVliat a change in Nuwara 
Eliya itself since 1867 for irstance, when we spent 
a few weeks out of the season (after about ( f fever) 
on the plains, the witty Iiish Chaplain, Rev. W. 
Kelly (afterwards of St. Peter's, Colombo) and a 
couple of young lieutenants making up the entire 
European populations, with the permanent residents 
already mentioned. We four spent nearly every 
evening together for some weeks and many were 
the Padre's stories about the begging tramps who 
had turned up at Matale and Xuwara Eliya in his 
day, or of the hunts and jungle excursions in the 
season ; while in the daytime we studied and 
practised horticulture (with trips to New Cornwall 
or Warwick, and of course to Hakgala under the 
best of auspices). 
But 7-e\'enons a nos inouiom ! The Gardens are 
Jooking their best to our minds, on this sunny 
