NOTES. 
49 
NOTES. 
1. Ambalantota to Hanibegamnwa .—Some incidents which befel 
in the course of a museum collecting trip to Hambegamuwa in the 
south-west corner of Uva last November may be put down in narra¬ 
tive form. I may remark that the observations cannot be correctly 
described as casual, since'it was one of the objects of the journey to 
collect them. The bulk of the material collected is not referred to 
in this account. 
By previous arrangement our party was met at the Ambalantota 
resthouse on November 19, 1908, by three Hambantota carts, which 
are specially constructed for travelling along minor roads. Two of 
them were drawn by four bulls apiece, the third by a pair of bulls, 
and, in addition, there was a spare bull. The bulls wore wooden 
bells, the constant liquid-sounding clangour of which proclaimed 
their whereabouts, for it is not the custom to carry fodder in this 
part of the country, but to turn the bulls loose to graze at every 
halting place, a proceeding sometimes entailing vexatious delay 
which cannot be helped. 
Leaving Ambalantota in the early morning the first few miles of 
road skirt the eastern bank of the Walawe-ganga. Shortly before 
reaching Koggala (7 miles) we passed the spoor of a leopard which 
had evidently just crossed that way. As usual, the dung was matted 
together with monkey hair. In Ceylon the occurrence of monkeys 
in abundance implies the presence of leopards in the neighbourhood, 
and the latter are then only a source of danger to the simian commu¬ 
nity, not to the human family. 
The schoolmaster of Koggala gave us some information about the 
route to be followed. There was a scarcity of water, the village 
tank being dry, and we engaged a man to guide us to a rock-pool, 
where I decided to camp for the night. This was at a spot named 
Kandantibu-gala, about 3J miles from Koggala. Incidentally, I 
inspected the principal sights of the countryside, namely, the 
Karambe-gala (commanding a view of Kataragam), and the hot 
springs. On the rock were large rock-pools containing frog-larvse, 
and adhering by one side to the rock with the lower side bathed in 
the water was a spherical foamy spawn-mass of Rhacophorus, look¬ 
ing like a snowball. The exposed portion of the ball was slightly 
hardened as a delicate membrane. There are also extensive rock- 
shelters, or gal-geval sometimes doubtless occupied by bears. In the 
vertical face of a great escarpment are some curious holes or pockets 
like pot-holes, but passing inward at right angles to the surface. 
H 7(6)09 
