324 Dr. Davy on the Geology and Mineralogy of Ceylon . 
the information that I can collect on the subject, it would appear to 
have been asserted erroneously. There is good reason to believe that 
the sulphur formerly employed by the Kandians in the manufacture 
of gunpowder was secretly procured from the continent of India, by 
means of pilgrims going to Adam’s Peak. 
Having now briefly considered the gneiss rock of the island, its 
varieties and imbedded minerals, as far as I am acquainted with them, 
allow me to call your attention to the other primitive rock, viz. 
dolomite rock. 
The only parts of the country where I have seen this rock form- 
ing hills, is in Matele, a province between Kandy and Trincomalie, 
and in the neighbourhood of Hangran ketty, which is a few miles 
to the east of Kandy. In Matele it appears to be the prevailing 
rock ; near Hangran ketty it only composes one hill. Besides 
occurring in mountain masses, dolomite is found in veins. In this 
form I have met with it in Saffragam, Doomberawa, and in the 
immediate neighbourhood of Kandy. The hills composed of it 
which I had an opportunity of examining, are low, steep, and 
rather conical. In Matele I saw at a distance higher and bolder 
hills, some of them of very singular shape, which I suspected 
to be similarly constituted ; but I could not ascertain if they 
were, the country being uninhabited and very difficult of access, 
and my time limited. The dolomite of the hills I examined is 
pretty uniform in its nature and appearance ; where exposed to the 
air, it is rendered black by a minute lichen with which it is covered; 
internally, it is either snow white or greyish white. It is rarely fine 
granular, generally crystalline, and in a few places highly crystalline, 
being composed of rhombs that are easily separated by a blow. 
Judging from the variable hardness of different specimens, and the 
action of acids, the proportions of the constituent parts of the rock 
