t ibo ) 
Ferguson, F.t.s.) Trimen refers to the trees 
in the Peradeniya Gardens and adds 
" I think I have seen it by the Mahaweli 
below Kandy." But strange to say he lias 
no reference to the " historic tree." "Ficus 
Banghalenais " (the banyan) is "Maha-nuga" 
of the Sinhalese. Ooes bis A. 0. JLawrie say 
anything about the historic tree in his 
"Gazetteer" ?~ Yours truly, 
OLD RESIDENT. 
[The only reference Sir A. G. Lawrie's book 
contains, to Kandy, is as follows : — 
I omii the materials I have eo'iei.ted on Kandy 
and it's lempies. I hope thai I -shall be able lo carry 
out niy inteiitioD, to write a volume which will in- 
clude my notes on Kandy, on ( he history and (ion- 
stiiniioa of tlia lianuyari Kingdom, and on 
KanHvsn law. 
—Ed. TA.] 
« 
THE LENGTH OF THE EARTH'S 
SHADOW. 
April 30. 
Sir,— Can any of your readers kindly in- 
form me as to the the length of the shadow 
which tha earth throws into space ? 
ENQUIRER. 
[Referring to our scientific correspondent, 
we have this reply : — 
" The length of the earth's shadow is not a 
fixed quantity, bat varies with the position of the 
earth in its orbit, or rather with its distance 
from the sun. Ttiking the most generally-adopted 
value for its mean distance from the fun as 
92,573,000 miles, the apex of the geometrical 
shadow will fall at the following distances from 
tiie centre of the earth: — 
In July ... ... 869,200 miles. 
In Apiil and Septetnber.., 855,400 „ 
In December ,.. ... 841,000 ■ „ 
'The presence of a dense atmnspl-.ere ronnd the 
earih, however, which enures the fc-uigential rays 
from the sr.n to converge nrire qnickly beyond 
the earth. rctnce> tiiese distanen by an amount 
which varie?^ from 4 pf^r cent to 5 per cent, ac- 
cording to I he amount of cloud wiiieh there may 
happen to be above the earth at the points 
where the rays graze it. It would require a great 
deal of space to go further into this interesting 
question." 
-Ed. T.A.} 
