February 2, 1891.] 
THE TR 0 PI 6 AL AGRICULTURIST. 
S 59 
amidst the ranges over whiah Labugankanda 
(height nearly 1,500 feet) presides, we had only 
attained an elevation of 75 feet, the rise in the follow- 
ing six miles being to 306 feet, the level of the “ top- 
water ” of Labugama Lake. But we must dispose 
of Hanwella, famous, amongst much else, for a 
fairly successful experiment in teak cultivation. 
We can remember the grand old trees which were 
BO injudiciously sold and cut down some thirty 
years ago. There is still a fine grove of these 
valuable trees, coppice and original growth, the 
ligho.ooloured foliage of which contrasts strikingly 
with the prevailing greens, many of them dark, 
like the jak, of the indigenous and ordinary trees. 
Amidst the teak grove and outside the fort (the 
resthouse stands within its bounds) is the large 
and well stocked timber depot, the timber in which, 
we understood, was entirely reserved for Govern- 
ment purposes, none being here available for 
sale to the public. We were interested to learn that 
a considerable quantity of teak serd gathered from 
the older trees at Hanwella, had been sent to 
Battioaloa, in the neigbourhood of which a fairly 
successful experiment in teak-growing had previously 
been made. It is to be hoped that the officers 
of the Forest Department may succeed in naturalizing 
Tsctona grandis amongst our forest resources, for 
few trees surpass it in value. We should think that 
any quantity of seed can be obtained from the now 
g randly grown trees in the teak forest, which was 
formed on the west coast of the Madras Presidency 
by the Marquis of Tweeddale and the value of which, as 
time advances, has been computed at millions sterling. 
The experience obtained on the Anamallays, as to 
suitable soil and climate, cannot but be of great 
value to Ceylon. Amidst all the tree vegetation 
around Hanwella, bird-life is abundant ; and we here 
enjoyed a woodland concert of mingled and melo- 
dious sound, unknown equally to dwellers in towns 
and the occupants of bungalows at extreme altitudes 
in the mountains. I am bound to admit, however, 
that the first herald-sound of approaching daylight, 
if not the last as “the gleaming” gave place 
tonight, consisted of raucous utterances of the 
ubiquitous and ever-in-evidenoe crows, — so unfavour- 
ably prominent with their fellow scavengers the 
pariah dogs in Sinhalese sannass : “ May he who 
violates the terms of this gift, be born next in the 
form of a dog or a crow." The association is 
somewhat unjust to the crow on the score of 
addiction to water baths, for which the crow is 
famous. On the score of voice there is little choice 
between the two. Hanwella has, it seems, super- 
seded the proper Sinhalese name of the place, 
Gurubewila, just as Welgama is now the com- 
moner name of the place which the Portu- 
guese and Dutch knew as Malwaua. And here 
a fitting pause can be made before describing our 
journey in the hills amidst the solitude of which 
slumber the mirror-like waters of Labugama Lake, 
and the voyage down the river named after 
Kelani, the site of the ancient Buddhist shrine, 
a place so “ pleasant,” that Hindu legend re, 
presents the sun as pausing in admiration, as 
he comes over it in his diurnal course. 
The road constructed by the Public Works Depart- 
ment specially for the purposes of the Waterworks, 
and which extends to a distance of 8,^ miles from 
Wakoya to the northern end of the Lake at 
L abugama, cost, iuoluding a sum of over R(1,000 
for land, a total of 11175,000, or very nearly 
E20.000 per mile. The estimate in this case was 
exceeded by E 100,000. At its commencement the 
track runs through valuable paddy lands and 
native gardens, whilst the upper portion had to 
be out through the lower bill ranges, the moun- 
tain streams requiring bridges strongly founded 
and with openings large enough to allow free 
passage to the exceptional floods to which this 
region is specially liable. To such bridges and 
the sides of other openings, all the way to Colombo, 
the main pipe is to be seen attached, resting on 
rollers to allow the movement, slight though 
it be, produced by expansion and contraction 
from changes of temperature. During the period 
in which the work of Lake clearing and bund con- 
struction was Carried on, flood water has been 
known to rise up to 17 feet over the level of the road; 
and it was affecting to learn how Mr. Burnett, 
suffering from lung disease of a serious nature as 
he was, rode and boated and waded through the 
waters of such a flood, in his anxiety to save 
the works from threatened destruction. That was 
the last and fatal blow to a constitution weakened 
not only by physical disease but by anxiety and 
repeated disappointments connected with the “service 
reservoir ” at Colombo, which, however, he lived 
to see, with the rest of the great and beneficial 
scheme he had carried out, a perfect success and 
one of the greatest triumphs of modern hydraulic 
engineering : and that too, at a comparatively 
moderate cost. Visiting Labugama, as we did, on 
an intensely hot day (the walk up the zigzag 
path to the Engineer’s bungalow about 2 p. m. was 
an experience easier to recollect than to endure), 
•we could scarcely realize that Labugama forma 
part of the very rainy region which surrounds the 
Peak and extends from the sacred mountain 
as a centre along its flanking ranges and through 
the river valleys between them. The average annual 
rainfall, established by ten years' observations at 
Labugama, is, in round numbers, 160 inches, the 
deposit in 1890 having exceeded this average 
by 5 inches. The extremes have been between 
187 inches in 1882 and 138 in 1888. The years 1882 
with 187 inches and 1883 with 185| must have 
been terribly trying to the Engineers and the 
force of labourers engaged on the construction 
of the bund (just commenced), for work had 
to proceed continuously, and in digging ex- 
ceptionally deep for a solid foundation all the 
expedients of soientifio experience had to be resorted 
to, in order to avert the destructive effects of flood 
waters. With such a rainfall as we have indi- 
cated, continuous for a large portion of the year 
(the lowest average monthly rainiall is 4-42 inches 
for January), it might be supposed that the Lake (176 
acres in area) would receive practically ihe whole 
of the rain falling over the “ catchment area ” of 
nearly 2,400 aores, in which there are no human 
abodes save the resthouse to which wa have re- 
ferred with the residence of the Engineer in charge 
and lines for a tew coolies, all at the northern end. 
But the absorption of rainfall by the soil and vegeta- 
tion have been on the scale thus indicated : — 
In 1887, out of a rainfall of 174-89 inches, the 
loss from absorption was 42-66 inches, or very 
nearly one-fourth of the rainfall, the exact per- 
centage being 24-32, 
In 1888, the year of lowest rainfall recorded, 
out of 138 inches of rainfall, the loss was 3i'29 
inches, or 22^ per cent of the rainfall. 
In 1889, with a rainfall of 169-28, the loss was 
31-33, or 19§ per cent. 
If sHoh are the proportions of soil and vegeta- 
tion absorption in one of the wettest portions of 
the island, readers can understand the much 
greater influence of this process in the dry and 
arid regions where the irrigation tanka are 
situated. Streams of limited size and originat- 
ing in the lower and hotter “ foot hills ” on 
the nqrthei-n and eastern sides of our mountain 
