IN THE JUNGLE THIETY YEARS AGO- 
go’ng over t»‘e rock does not mean climbing over it^ ■ 
but going through a break which had not been 
visible in the distance — a moral lesson : have an | 
object, go straight at it with such caut«on and di- J 
rection as common prudence demands, and you will find 
an opening. 
We are now some 5,000 feet above sea level, and 
the view is magnificent. Adam’s Peak, with a deep blue I 
colour, towers above a thin white v^ti-eak of mist, the j 
bright colouring given by the sun on those valPya rj 
below, on which its rays had struck, contrasting with | 
the dark Shade of the Peacock and other mountains I 
still in the gray of the mor-ning. 
By the way, we used"^ to be able to tell very well, 
according to the season of the year, what o’clock it 
was by the time the sun’s rays first touched the ex- 
treme summit of the Peacock mountains. In fact, be- i 
fore very long I could always tell by a glance at 
the sun what o’clock it was, quite exact enough for ' 
all purposes in those rude days, with no railways or 
telegraphs and post letters to sent for to Pussellawa, 
eeven or eight mil#? oft, twice a week ; indeed my watch 
was before h»ng discarded altog* th,er as a useless append- ' 
age and looted up in my box. A very good way of . 
finding the time is, to examine the eyes of acat. 
I became aware of this one day by chance. The natives 
are quick at telling the “time of day,” by what means 
I do not know, unless by habit and a sort of natural ) 
instinct. Any way, it used to be a common practice^ 
in a matter of course way to a?k jmur servant ' * 
what o’clock it was, and one g-merally got a pretty 
correct answer. When the sun was going down he would 
measure his shadowy in fact make himself a sort of tern - 
porary sun-dial. One cloudy day, on put ting the usual 
question, “What o’clock is it?” there was no reply, 
but immediately such a rushing and tumbling all over- 
the house commenced, v ith shouts of ‘ ‘ Catch the cat ; 
master wants to know what ’s the clock.” On demand- » 
ing an explanation of this extraordinary proeeeding, the ^ 
cat was brought, and the true time of day at one# 
declared. It was then brougKT'to my notice that in 
the morning the pupil of the cat’s eye was quite round, ^ , 
gradually decreasing, until at noon it was a small 
streak just, like a hair, after which it again enlarged 
towards evening. 
We have been resting during this digression, so a 
short pull more and we are over the rock into a new 
world — a small clearing of coffee, which was not visible 
owing to the immense number of stumps, roots, and log# 
*Mr. Millie was a llamboda and Pundaluoya planter, 
Ed. 
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