[Under this heading, in future, we mean to give a four page " Supplement " with our Tropical 
Agriculturist, from time to time as there is matter of sufficient value, so to be preserved.] 
The ArcliS8o!ogicai Sm'vey of 
Ceylon. 
( Report presented to the Ceylon Legislative 
Council, Jan. 19th 1899 ) 
The Committee were instructed by Your Excellency 
to consider — as they understaud the terms — the whole 
question of the AichaiDlcgical Survey of Cojlon. ia 
particular " the system v.hich should be adopted 
and the extent to which it shoul;) be pursued." 
To these two points — the system and tbe extent — 
the Committee have directed their recommendations. 
They have found it necessary to base iheir recom- 
mendations as to the system to be pursued on an 
examination of the system hitherto adopted and an 
estimate of the results thus far attained. As to the 
extent to which it shoitld be carried, two distinct ques- 
tions have arisen — that of the scale of the work from 
year to year and that of its probable duratiou. 
They hope to be excused if, in explaining the 
grouads of their conclusions, they have necessarily 
included the statement of many things with which 
Yonr Excellency is pei-fectly familiar. 
SYSTEM HITHEUTO ADOPTED. 
By the original instruc'.ions given by Sir A. Gordon 
in iSOO, the work consists of two parts, survey and 
exctvation. Under the former head .Mr. Bell includes 
as Circuit woik " exploring, examining mapping, 
and describing the ancient sites and making copies 
of ancient inscriptions outside main centres of oper- 
ation ( Mr. Bell's letter to Colonial Secretary of March 
20 1607, paragraph 6). 
The method of working has been to search sys- 
tematicaily certain areas — a whale Province for in- 
stance — with suilicient thoroughness to ascertain ex- 
haustively what monuments or ruins it contains; then 
to explore in I'etail* any smaller areas which have 
been found to contain ruins of importance ; finally 
thoroughly to dif,' up the surface in the actual site 
of monuments, to remove the ioil by which Ihey may 
be covered, and in some cases — to replace fallen blocks 
and re-arrange or '• reset " the structure. 
Restoration has not, in any case, been attempted. 
To the Circuit Work, ' Mr. Bell has devoted, as 
a rule, about four months of each year, (chitHy the 
dry months, which in the Norili Central Province aro 
August, September and October,) while excavation 
has been oarrio l on under his imniodiate supervision 
during about eight months. For the management 
• This Wiva done in Anuradhapura by driving 
parallel lines through the forest within defined areas, 
at intervals of from 40 to CO ft. (First Progreee 
Report.) 
of the labour force he has had frcm time to tima 
European Assistants ; but these being poorly paid, 
never remained lonff, and since 1S95 he has had none. 
For two years (ISSl — 92) he had the general assis- 
tance of Jlr. De Zilva 'SVickiamasinghe, who is now 
in England. But the work has not hitherto been 
divided ; nothing considerable has been undertaken 
but what Mr. Bell himself could personally superin- 
tend. He has employed three skilled draughtsmen and 
a skilled overseer for surveys and for the mechanical 
work connected with copying inscriptions, and has 
himself undertaken the necessary photography. "Pro- 
gress Reports " have been issued from time to time* 
which have been printed as Sessional Papers, with 
lithographs of bui'dings and v.'orks of art, plans and 
elevations, carviug«, etc. All inscriptions found have 
been copied, and a good many have been published 
with translations in the Reports. 
RESULTS. 
The Committee think that the system which has 
been thus described has been proved by its results to 
be a good system, and further, that the results 
hitherto obtained are a good return for the labour 
and money expended. In Anuradhapra-a there have 
been brought into such clear light, as now to be 
easily studied in detail by any visitor, monuments of 
ancient art and historical records which must other- 
wise have remained either altogether unseen or quite 
taniutiliigible. Those in Sigiriya, though le?s access- 
ablo, are of similar, and in some respects of unique, 
interest. 
The monuments thus brought to light consist chiefly 
of very ancient buildings, in many instances ranged ia 
streets or grouped in sacred enolosur;s round the 
dagabas or domed relic-chambers characteristic of 
Buddhism— buildings often adorned with elaborate 
and varied carvings, besides statues and inscribed 
pillars, slabs, and panels. These monuments are not 
only such as to astonish the tourist by their extent 
and mass, or delight him by their picturesqueness, 
but such as to add very appreciably to our knowledge 
of tbe past history of the Island, of the institutioaa 
of Buddhism, and of the phases of art. The valae 
of this information is not merely that which would 
attach to the isolated records of the antiquities 
of a small island, but is to be estimated in its bearing 
on tbe results of similar researches in India vvitU 
which, alike in history, in religious institutions, and 
in art, t!ie relations of Ceylon have been close and 
continuous. 
• Report on the Kegalla District (Province ol 
Sabaragainuwa) ; First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, 
Sixth and Seventh Reports on .\nuradhapnra and 
the North-Central Province; and Interim Report* 
/three) on operations at Sigiriya (Central Province) 
J895, ieS6, 1897. 
