UPPER RAMBODA. 
eome upon distinctly separate and well-defined bound- 
aries of soil, and it may be that something of the same 
sort may, I do not say does, exist in the air. The leaf 
of the coffee trees above this line was small, very often 
tinted with brown on the edges, had a variegated ap- 
pearance, shrunken, and turned up at the ends, a per- 
fectly different appearance from the fine smooth dark 
green leaf, at a lower elevation. The clusters of fruit 
were also small, indeed cluster is not a name for them ; 
distributed over the tree were berries in twos, threes, 
and fours, and very frequently only a solitary one, 
00 that, after one or two rounds of picking, the crop 
was generally about done. In calculating crop on the 
trees, all planters are now well awai-e of the importance 
of distinguishing between large and small clusters, but 
this was not taken into due consideration then ; hence 
the holders of high -land coffee properties were always 
invariably disappointed in their estimates. 
The only redeeming point was, that this high coffee 
brought a high price, but I do not think it does so now. 
Be this as it may, I believe the generally recognized 
opinion now is that fine quality does not reimburse the 
planter in pocket for deficiency in quantity. 
CHAPTER HU 
How THE Coast Advance System Began ; 
Rice Delivery and Gifts of Cumblies. 
One might meet a solitary planter, or perhaps tiv^o or 
three in company, wending their way down the Ata- 
bage Pass, clothed in leech gaiters, and a hunting cap 
with a white cover hanging down the back of the neck, 
going to Kandy for coolies. ‘‘Hallo, Jones, where 
are you off to now ? Is it for money or coolies for 
it must be either the one or the other. 
We never knew where we might find coolies : it 
might be within a few miles of the estate, or within a 
few hundred. 
As an instance : once on making preparations for one 
of these trips, to be weeks, or perhaps months, away, 
on rounding one of the corners of the road, near 
Glenloch estate, some gangs of 50 to 60 coolies each 
sudd' nly met me. On asking where they were going 
to, thekanganies called a halt, and after a good deal of 
“ palaver” they agreed to engage with me, and so that 
very same evening found me back on the estate wdth a 
full force of labour. It was always a good sii^n for the 
planter, when, on speaking to these travelling gangs, 
they stopped, as in general their minds were made up 
as to where they were going, in which case they marched 
