Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/374

Rh 362 CEYLON former. In some localities on the sea-shore these veins assume the character of pitch-stone porphyry highly im pregnated with iron. Hornblende and primitive green stone are found in the vicinity of Adam s Peak and in the Pussellava district. Laterite, known in Ceylon as cabook, a product of disin tegrated gneiss, exists in vast quantities in many parts, and is quarried for building purposes. As yet no traces of coal have been found, with the exception of a little anthracite ; but looking to the position of the carboniferous deposits of northern India, lying as they do on. the gneiss formation, it is not impossible that similar deposits may be here met with in like positions. Specimens of tin, platina, copper, and black oxide of manganese from the southern province have been placed in the museum of the Ceylon Asiatic Society. Quicksilver mines existed at one time in the vicinity of Colombo, and the Dutch are said to have exported the article to Europe. Plumbago is quarried to a great extent, and has for a series of years formed a considerable item in the exports of the island. In 1850 the shipments of this article amounted to 23,823 cwts., in 1860 to 75,000 cwts., and in 1874 to 150,000 cwts. Iron exists in vast quantities in the western, southern, and central provinces, of excellent quality, in many places cropping out at the surface in a state of great purity. The Sinhalese have been accus tomed to work the ore into tools and implements from the most remote times ; and although the means they employ are rude, imperfect, and wasteful in the extreme, they nevertheless manufacture articles which are esteemed by them far above those imported from Europe, and the rudely worked Sinhalese iron is equal in temper to the finest Swedish metal. Nitre and nitrate of lime are to be met with in many caves of the low country, whilst alum and sulphate of magnesia are known to exist, though in limited quantities. Natural deposits of common salt are found in many parts of the maritime provinces. It is also produced by arti ficial means in large quantities under the supervision of Government, in whose hands its manufacture and sale form a monopoly which yields an annual revenue of con siderable amount. In 1873 the sale of this article yielded 80,000. In the Sabaragamuwa district precious stones are met with in great abundance ; also, though less commonly, in the Badulla, Nuwara Eliya, and Matara districts. The most valuable are the ruby, the sapphire, the amethyst, the cat s-eye, and the carbuncle. Emeralds are rarely met with in any purity ; but the moon-stone, cinnamon stones, and garnets are found in great abundance and variety. Soil. The natural soils of Ceylon are composed of quartzose gravel, felspathic clay, and sand often of a pure white, blended with or overlaid by brown and red loams, re sulting from the decay of vegetable matter, or the disintegra tion of the gneiss and hornblende formations. The whole of the great northern extremity of the island consists of a sandy and calcareous admixture, made to yield productive crops of grain, tobacco, cotton, and vegetables by the care ful industry of the Tamil population, who spare no pains in irrigating and manuring their lands. Between the northern districts and the elevated mountain ranges which overlook the Bintenne and Uva countries are extensive plains of alluvial soil washed down from the table-lands above, where once a teeming population produced large quantities of grain. The remains of ancient works of irrigation bear testimony to the bygone agriculture of these extensive regions now covered by swamps or dense jungle. The general character of the soil in the maritime pro vinces to the east, south, and west is sandy. Large tracts of quartzose sand spread along the whole line of sea-coast, some of which, of a pure white, and very deficient in vegetable matter, is admirably adapted to the growth of the cinnamon plant. In the light sandy districts, where the soil is perfectly free, and contains a portion of veget able and mineral loam, the cocoa-nut palm flourishes in great luxuriance. This is the case along the entire coast line from Kalpitiya to Point de Galle, and further east ward and northward to Matara, stretching to a distance inland varying from 100 yards to 3 miles. From this light sandy belt as far as the mountain-zone of the Kandyan country the land is mainly composed of low hilly undula tions of sandstone and ferruginous clay, incapable of almost any cultivation, but intersected in every direction with extensive valleys and wide plains of a more generous soil, not tighly fertile, but still capable, with a little industry, of yielding ample crops of rice. The soil of the central province, although frequently containing great quantities of quartzose sand and ferrugi nous clay, is in many of the more elevated districts of a fine loamy character. Sand sufficiently vegetable and light for rice culture may be seen at all elevations in the hill districts ; but the fine chocolate and brown loams overlying gneiss or limestone formations, so admirably adapted for coffee cultivation, are only to be found on the steep sides or along the base of mountain ranges at an elevation varying from 2000 to 4000 feet. Such land well-timbered contains in its elements the decomposed particles of the rocks above, blended with the decayed vegetable matter of forests that have for centuries scattered beneath them the germs of fertility. The quantity of really rich coffee land in these districts is but small as compared with the extent of country, vast tracts of open valleys consisting of an indifferent yellow tenacious soil interspersed with many low ranges of quartz rock. Botany. The characteristics of the low-growing plants of Ceylon approach nearly to those of the coasts of southern India. The Rhizophorece are numerous along the low muddy sbores of salt lakes and stagnant pools ; and the acacias are equally abundant. The list comprises JEyiceras fra- yrans, Epitkinia malayana, Thespesia popidnea, Feronia elephantum, Salvadora persica (the true mustard tree of Scripture), Eugenia bracteafa, Elceodendron Roxburyhii, Cassia Fistula, Cassia Roxlurghii, &amp;lt;tc. The herbaceous plants of the low country belong mostly to the natural orders Composite, LeguminoKce, Rubiacece, Scrophulariacece, and Et/phorbiacea?. Leaving the plains of the maritime country and ascend ing a height of 4000 feet in the central districts, we find both herbage and trees assume an altered character. The foliage of the latter is larger and deeper coloured, and they attain a height unknown in the hot low country. The herbaceous vegetation is there made up of ferns, Cyr- tandreoe, Composites, Scitaminece, and Urticaceat. The dense masses of lofty forest at that altitude are interspersed with large open tracts of coarse wiry grass, called by the natives patanas, and of value to them as affording pas turage for their cattle. Between the altitudes of 4000 and 8000 feet, many plants are to be met with partaking of European forms, yet blended with tropical characteristics. The guelder rose, St John s wort, the Nepenthes distillatoria or pitcher plant, violets, geraniums, buttercups, sun-dews, ladies mantles, and campanulas thrive by the side of Mayno- liacea;, Ranunculacece, Elaeocarpece, &c. The most beauti ful flowering shrub of this truly alpine region is the rhodo dendron, which in many instances grows to the height of 70 feet. It is met with in great abundance in the moist plains of the elevated land above Nuwara Eliya, flowering abundantly in June and July. There are two distinct