114 §; Scientific Reviews. 
ed with singular outrigged vessels, seems to have excited her ad- 
miration, though with its general appearance she expresses herself 
disappointed: of the hot springs, where the late French expedition 
found turtles and fish, she makes no mention. Leaving this place 
on a fine evening, they passed the formidable rocks called the 
Basses during the night of the 12th of October, and anchored soon 
after in the harbour of the Point de Galle, whose entrance is mark- 
ed by several bold rocks, against which the sea beats with violence. 
The view of the town from the sea, though not so magnificent, is 
more cheerful than that of Trincomalé. ‘The surrounding country 
exhibits roads cut through topes or groves of cocoa-nut trees, 
rustic bridges over winding streams, hills, and deep dells, and 
huts made of palm-leaves, woven in a variety of plaits. The natives 
are an elegant but effeminate race: the men scarcely to be distin- 
guished from the women by their dress, which consists of a vest 
and loose robe of cotton ; their hair long, and gathered up in knots 
and braids, fastened behind with gold bodkins, or large combs of 
tortoise-shell, of a fanciful shape. Instead of the umbrella, the 
more wealthy natives have a gigantic fan, made of the talipot leaf, 
carried to protect them from the sun. 
A Mrs. Gibson has established a school here, the first in the is- 
land ; and it has succeeded very well. On leaving Ceylon, Adams’ 
Peak was visible from the deck at the estimated distance of 100 
miles. Cape Cormorin, which our traveller next passed, she was 
surprized to find a very low land ; but the mountains (Ghauts) in 
the vicinity, were extremely picturesque. 4 
The arrival of the first steamer which had ever visited Bombay, 
was attended with many demonstrations of joy and gratification. 
The epoch of our author's arrival, was also that at which Mr. El- 
phinstone (to whom we are indebted for so much information on 
the neighbouring regions, ) relinquished his government. 
_ Our author, soon after her arrival, departed on board the Pali- 
nurus of 190 tons, with Mr. Elphinstone, Mr. Steele, Messrs. Wal- 
lace and Gordon, and Mr. Lushington, for Cosseir, passing in a few 
days Cape Aden and the straits of Babelmandel, and reaching 
Mocha on the Ist of December. 
At the straits of Babelmandel, a rush of the sea appears to have 
divided a bed of hard black rock, and thus to have forced a chan- 
nel for itself of two or three miles in breadth, the rock rising on 
each side, bleak, barren, and cheerless, with only a few blades of 
grass endeavouring to force themselves through its crevices. 
Mocha, with its plastered and white-washed houses of unbaked 
brick, appeared as if excavated from a quarry of marble, and no 
tree or shrub broke the uniformity of colour. Our travellers were 
here well received by the governor, and there were songs of love 
and war, and the music of rude guitars, of flagelets, and tabors. 
The facades and cornices of the houses were seen varied in every 
shape of fretwork and arabesque, and the white terraces of each 
building, with little verandahs closed or open, in many fantastic 
