the nut is useful; its fibres are wrought into the eoir rope, of which large
quantities are annually exported, and the shells are manufactured into various
domestic utensils. From the sap of the tree a drink is obtained
which is called i‘ toddy,” and made into arrack by distillation. The leaves
afford a good material for the thatching of the native huts, and axe, more-
over, given as food to elephants. The Palmyra palm, which also abounds
in the island, shares with the cocoa-nut tree in many of its advantages.
The other staples of Ceylon are cinnamon, coffee, sugar, rice, arica nut,
precious stones, plumbago, (probably the best in the world,) and other vegetable
and mineral productions. The pearl fisheries, for which the island
was once famous, have very much diminished in their yield. The natives
account for the diminution by declaring that the pearl-oyster has the power
of locomotion, and has shifted its former quarters to some new ground not
yet discovered. The scarcity is probably owing to the fact that the pearls
have been disturbed before they have reached their full development, which
is said to require a period of seven years. At one time the fishery was a
source of handsome revenue to the government; in 1797 the sum of £140,000
was derived from it. Since that period the proceeds have gradually fallen
off, until at present they amount to almost nothing. Diving for the pearl-
oyster is a favorite occupation among the natives of Ceylon, as a skilful diver
can earn ten times the wages of a farm laborer, and the employment is not,
as has been stated, unfavorable to health, but, on the contrary, conducive to
strength and vigor of body.
Ceylon abounds in a rich vegetation, and many trees of a vigorous
growth, among which, in addition to the cocoa-nut and Palmyra palm, there
is the kettal tree, from the sap of which is produced a coarse sugar, and
from its fruit, when dried and reduced to powder, a substitute for rice flour.
The talipot, with its immense foliage, is one of the wonders of the island; a
single leaf of this tree is suflicient to cover beneath its shade several persons,
and it supplies, when softened by boiling, a substitute for paper, upon which
the natives are in the habit of writing, and find in it a most durable material.
The cinnamon with its beautiful white blossom and its red tipped
leaves, and other odoriferous trees, are among the native products of Ceylon
; but the stories of the fragrance of the aroma exhaled from these trees
and the plants, and which voyagers have described as sensible at a distance
from the land, are gross exaggerations. No fragrance was observed equal
to that of the magnolia or of the delightful perfume of the newly-mown
grass of our own country, or in any degree approaching the delicious odor
of the heliotrope and geranium hedges of Madeira. The cultivated flowers
that were seen at Ceylon and at Mauritius were, in fact, remarkable for
their want of fragrance. Rich woods of various kinds, as the rose, the
ebony, the satin, and lime, grow in abundance on the island, and are used
for many purposes of utility and ornament.
Within the forests and in the jungles of Ceylon are found a great variety
of wild animals—the elephant, the hyena, tiger-cat, the hear, the deer,
and the monkey, are among the most abundant. The number of elephants
is incredibly great, and, issuing in troops from their lairs, they come crushing
down the cultivated fields and plantations and devouring the crops, with
great loss to the proprietors. They are found in all the uncultivated parts
of the island, hut their favorite haunts are near to the farms, to which they
prove so destructive that the colonial government pays a reward of 7s. 6d.
(about $1 85) for every tail of the animal which is brought to the authorities.
Mr. Talbot, the Government agent at Galle, stated, surprising as it
may seem, that he had paid during the preceding year two hundred pounds
sterling for tails, which would give six hundred as the number of elephants
destroyed.
An army officer, as was stated to the Commodore, actually killed, during
his residence on the island, no less than six hundred of these gigantic animals.
Within a few months of the arrival of the Mississippi, two officers of
the garrison, one of whom (Lieutenant Lennox) became personally known to
the Commodore, destroyed no less than forty elephants in the course of a
sporting visit of six weeks to the jungle. They are ordinarily shot with a
rifle; the sportsman approaches his game in front, or perhaps, as the sailors
would say, on the quarter, that he may aim at either of the only two vital
parts upon which a rifle ball will have any effect, one being directly in the
forehead, through which the brain is penetrated, and the other behind the
ear. If the hunter chance to come up to his elephant in the rear, he raises a
shout or makes a noise, by which the animal is attracted, and, turning its
head, or throwing forward its ears, exposes the vital spot, at which his ruthless
enemy aims the deadly hall, and brings down his huge victim. The elephants
of Ceylon are not so large as those of other parts of India, and but
a small proportion of them have tusks.
Of serpents, there are hut twenty species, four only of which are venomous,
the cobra and tic prolango being the most deadly. The latter is said
to he endowed with great cunning, and to lie in wait for the purpose of
attacking the passing traveller. The stories which are told of the anaconda,
boa constrictor or python, seizing upon cattle and horses, and even horsemeu,
must he received as fabulous. There is, however, a species of boa peculiar
to the island, which is capable of swallowing a deer whole, and after they
have indulged in venison to that degree, and become surfeited with so substantial
a' meal, they fall readily a prey to the captor. This is believed to
be the extent of the powers of deglutition of the Ceylon boas; those
enormous serpents, which are said to swallow an entire ox, horns and all,
being unknown in that region. I t may not he amiss to refer here to a remedy
for venomous bites, for which popular opinion in the east claims considerable
efficacy, this is a paste made by moistening the powder of ipecachu