SI 4 Dr. Davy on the Geology and Mineralogy of Ceylon . 
a liberal hand, has scattered over this fortunate island ; I must con- 
fine myself to the mere skeleton, respecting which, allow me to enter 
into more minute details. 
The great mass of rock, of which the island consists, is of two 
principal kinds; the most prevailing kind is gneiss, the most limited, 
dolomite. 
The gneiss varies in its appearance in different places beyond the 
power of description ; in some places the peculiar structure of this 
rock is distinct, in others hardly to be traced, and sometimes it dis- 
appears altogether ; and we find granite, common and graphite, 
or other varieties of rock, as sienite, common felspar and adularia 
rock, primitive greenstone, and quartz rock. I shall mention but 
a few localities ; it would be tedious, and perhaps useless at present, 
to enumerate many. 
The peculiar structure of gneiss may be seen in very many places, 
but no where more beautiful than at Amanapoona, in the Kandian 
country, where it consists of white felspar and quartz, in a fine crys- 
talline state, with layers of black mica, containing imbedded nume- 
rous crystals of light coloured garnet. 
A good instance of common granite occurs at Point de Galle, 
near the fort by the sea side. Graphic granite is rare ; I have 
hitherto found it in one place only, viz. at Trincomalie, where it 
occurs of a beautiful quality on the sea shore, about half a mile 
beyond Chapel-point. The quartz in this instance is black or grey 
rock crystal, and the felspar of a bright flesh colour, highly crystal- 
line ; the quartz envelopes, as it were, the felspar, in very thin 
hexagonal or semi-hexagonal cases ; so that nothing can be more 
different in appearance than the longitudinal and transverse fracture 
of the rock. 
Sienite is not a common variety ; however I have met with it in 
