S68 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 
[Feb. r, 1898 . 
front. A heat igniter is now i)ut on instead of 
the electric battery and the engines are doing 
better. One of the latest engines of Priest- 
man’s make is coming out to Kamlapolla for use 
in a factory. It will be interesting to see how 
it compares with the old style. Priestman & Co., 
of Hull, were the early makers of oil engines, 
but their engine.s have in rainy places been supcr- 
sedeil by other makes. TU^y are trying to get 
the business back. 
Messrs. Brown are also building a 'Withering 
house at Batalgalla, Dikoya : the dimensions of 
this are 100 feet by 40 feet, there being three 
flats. Tliere are many other features of intei'est 
in the works at Hatton to notice, including 
a solid brass turbine of novel character ; the 
pelton wheels, wbich are being used in some cases, 
instead of turbines; jets for condensing steam in 
an engine: winches for wire shoots; &c. , &c. 
Heaps of old coffee machinery, gradually being 
melted down for use in other torms, are one 
of the points that attract the attention of a 
stranger. 
PICKINGS. 
The following is the test of a Proclamation 
issued by H.E. the Governor of the Cape and pub- 
lished in the Government Gazette of November 12th, 
1897 
Whereas it is desirable to prevent the introduction 
into this Colony of the destructive Coffee-blight known 
as IlemUtia vastatrix : Now, therefore, under and by 
virtue of the powers and authorities vested in me by 
Act No. 9 of 1876, intituled “ Act to regulate the intro- 
duction into this Colony of articles or things which by 
reason of disease or otherwise might be injurious to the 
interets thereof,” I do hereby proclaim, declare, and 
make known that I have made the Regulations set 
forth in the Schedule hereto for preventing the intro- 
duction into this Colony from beyond the boundaries 
thereof, of the articles and things specified in the said 
Regulations. 
Any pei’son or persons contravening any of these 
said Regulations shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine 
not exceeding £100 sterling, and in default of payment 
thereof shall be liable to imprisonment for any term 
not exceeding six months, unless such fine be sooner 
paid. 
Schedule to the Fobegoino Proclamation. — The 
importation into this Colony, from places beyond the 
boundary thereof, of any coffee plant, or of any cutting, 
graft, or portion thereof, is hereby absolutely prohi- 
bited ; and anyone importing or introducing any such 
coffee plant, catting, graft. Or portion thereof, shall 
upon conviction he suliject to the penalty provided in 
the body of this Proclamation, and the addition thereto 
the plant, cutting, graft, or portion thereof, shall forth- 
with be destroyed. 
WATER POWER. 
Under the head of “ Water : tlie Modern 
Rival of Coal,” Mr. J. B. C. Ker.shaw, in Chambers' 
Journal for .Tanuary, describes the development 
of the modern methods for tapping the almost 
limitless water power of the earth by means of 
iir.st, turbines (either ‘reaction’ or ‘impact’) and 
secondly, dynamos- He describes the wheel pit 
at Niagara as planned to hold ten turbines, so 
that wlien they are all in position 50,000 horse 
power will he produced at one station. The 
imi'acb-turbine or Pelton wheel, he says, is 
principally used in the mining districts of the 
■’’nited States, though as our readers knows 
they are not unknown in Ceylon. The article 
is a very instructive one and Mr. Kershaw points 
out that it is a curiou.s fact that in Europe 
those countries rich in the possession of extensive 
coalfields — namely England, Germany, and 
Belgium are extremely poor in their posses.sion 
of natural water power : whilst Switzerland, 
France, Norway and Sweden have been highly 
favoured by nature in the number and the 
magnitude of their water powers. 
WILD SPORT IX CEYLON. 
HUNTING the SAMBUR. 
From Mr. F. Fitzroy Dickson’s paper on this 
subject in the January number of Travel we take 
tlie following extract as illustrative of the in- 
teresting manner in which the writer has dealt 
with his subject and also of the character of the 
sport he describes : — 
The next day was all that we could wish, and by 
daybreak we found ourselves at what is known as 
Round Patna, some five miles from where we were 
camped. This was always looked upon as a good 
cover, but the disadvantage was that, being isolated, 
if the deer took it into his head, he could go clean 
away from us, unless we were prepared for an all- 
day chase, as there was no open laud by which to 
follow him. We were prepared for this contingency, 
however, and had each one of us put a few biscuits 
in his pocket, a precaution, as events proved, that 
was well justified. 
A little stream trickled into the Round Patna at 
the upper end, and flowed through a luxuriant meadow. 
Here we took the pack and uncoupled. We had with 
us two seizers, Scotch stag-hounds, and these we 
kept in leash. It was my luck to hold them, 
and the bother they gave me, getting to one side 
of a tree when I wanted to go another, at times 
made we wish them somewhere else. “ Grouach ” 
and “ Borap ” were their names, and they were faith- 
full, honest and staunch hounds as ever trod. Once 
uncoupled, the pack streamed all over the place, 
working with the keenness that characterizes a pack 
well handled and in good heart. Presently Marquis, 
a young dog of the first season, picked up a scent, 
which we ran down to the water’s-edge and lost. 
Then Bugler took it up on the other side of the 
stream, and all at once three or four got on to it 
at once, and headed by old Melody, the pack 
were soon out of sight, having taken a bee-line 
up the face of the hill and into the jungle. As 
soon as they were over the brow of the hill 
we could hear nothing, and there was no help 
for it but to climb up after them as quickly as 
possible. Accordingly, up we went at a good swing- 
ing pace, and made for the highest ridge. Before 
reaching this, we crossed the line of the hunt, and 
there we saw the track of the stag. 
“ Men, alive 1 ” cried 'iV. with great glee, “ he’s 
of hoofs like auld hornie himself,” and certainly 
the print showed that we had an old animal to deal 
with what would give us all we wanted and some- 
thing more perhaps. 
Well, we kept on that ridge running and panting 
and struggling for about an hour, and then found 
ourselves on the shoulder of one of the highest 
peaks. Every now and again we could hear the 
distant tongue of the hounds, and we knew that we 
were in for it, and intended to see the game through 
if it took ns a week. Presently we got into a nasty 
bit of jungle, a mixture of nillu and bamboo. Nillu, 
I might explain, is a jointed, succulent plant, which 
grows up in dense clumps, many acres in extent. 
There are several varieties of it, and all equally ob- 
jectionable from their obstructive properties. It is 
easily cut with a knife, but it has the faculty of 
tripping you up and barring your passage. “Nillu” 
is the Tamil word for “ Stop.” 
We were pretty high up now, and so worked our 
way across the face of the hill, but it was an awful 
task. We had to relieve one another at breaking the 
way, for such a tangle as bamboo and nillu is must 
be seen to be appreciated. The bamboo I speak of 
is, of course, not like the big cane that figures in 
