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THE ISLAND OF CEYLON. 
CHAPTER XIV. 
Animals of Ceylon . 
Having described the island of Ceylon, and the several 
races of it’s inhabitants, I now proceed to give some account 
of it’s natural productions. From my profession and habits 
of life, a systematic description of these cannot be expect- 
ed. I shall therefore in plain and common language, 
relate what I have myself observed, and what I have 
learnt from authentic information : those who are in the 
same predicament with myself, and who are unacquainted 
with the terms employed by scientifick men, may find such 
an account at least more readily understood ; and those 
who have studied natural history as a science, will be 
easily able to refer the facts I advance to a regular 
system. 
At the head of the class of quadrupeds, and superior 
to those of the same species found in any other part of 
the world, are the elephants of Ceylon. The number of 
these noble animals produced there is very great, and nowhere 
are they found either so docile or so excellent in their 
shape and appearance. To give any particular description 
of a species so often described and so universally known, 
would be superfluous: but as the manner of catching them 
