The Voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe, Volume I and Volume II

by A. E. Nordenskiöld

CHAPTER XIX.

Hong Kong and Canton—Stone-polishing Establishments at Canton— Political Relations in an English Colony—Treatment of the Natives— Voyage to Labuan—Coal Mines there—Excursion to the shore of Borneo—Malay Villages—Singapore—Voyage to Ceylon—Point de Galle—The Gem Mines at Ratnapoora—Visit to a Temple—Purchase of Manuscripts—The Population of Ceylon—Dr. Almquist's Excursion to the Interior of the Island.

Some days after our arrival at Yokohama the Vega was removed to the dock at Yokosuka, there to be protected by coppering against the boring mussels of the warm seas, so injurious to the vessel's hull; the opportunity being also taken advantage of by me to subject the vessel to some trifling repairs and alterations in the fitting up, which were desirable because during the remainder of our voyage we were to sail not in a cold but in a tropical climate. The work took somewhat longer time than was reckoned on, so that it was not until the 21st September that the Vega could leave the dock and return to Yokohama. It had originally been my intention to remain in Japan only so long as was necessary for the finishing of this work, during which time opportunity could be given to the officers and crew of the Vega to rest after the labours and sufferings of the long winter, to receive and answer letters from home, and to gather from the newspapers the most important occurrences that had taken place during our fourteen months' absence from the regions which are affected by what takes place in the world. But as appears from the foregoing narrative, the delay was longer than had been intended. This indeed was caused in some degree by the difficulty of tearing ourselves away after only a few days' stay from a people so remarkable, so lovable, and so hospitable as the Japanese, and from a land so magnificently endowed by nature. Besides, when the Vega was again ready for sea, it was so near the time for the change of the monsoon, that it was not advisable, and would not have been attended with any saving of time, to sail immediately. For at that season furious storms are wont to rage in these seas, and the wind then prevailing is so unfavourable for sailing from Japan to the southward, that a vessel with the weak steam-power of the Vega cruising between Japan and Hong Kong in a head-wind might readily have lost the days saved by an earner departure. On the other hand, in the end of October and the beginning of November we could, during our passage to Hong Kong, count on a fresh and always favourable breeze. This took place too, so that, leaving Nagasaki on the 27th October, we were able to anchor in the harbour of Hong Kong as early as the 2nd November.

There was of course no prospect of being able to accomplish anything for the benefit of science during a few days' stay in a region which had been examined by naturalists innumerable times before, but I at all events touched at this harbour that I might meet the expressed wish of one of the members of the expedition not to leave eastern Asia without having, during the voyage of the Vega, seen something of the so much talked of "heavenly kingdom" so different from all other lands.

For this purpose, however, Hong Kong is an unsuitable place. This rich and flourishing commercial town, which has been created by England's Chinese politics and opium trade, is a British colony with a European stamp, which has little to show of the original Chinese folk-life, although the principal part of its population consists of Chinese. But at the distance of a few hours by steamer from Hong Kong lies the large old commercial city of Canton, which, though it has long been open to Europeans, is still purely Chinese, with its peatstack-like architecture, its countless population, its temples, prisons, flower-junks, mandarins, pig-tailed street-boys, &c. Most of the members of the expedition made an excursion thither, and were rewarded with innumerable indescribable impressions from Chinese city life. We were everywhere received by the natives in a friendly way,[385] and short as our visit was, it was yet sufficient to dissipate the erroneous impressions which a number of European authors have been pleased to give of the most populous nation. One soon saw that he has to do with an earnest and industrious people, who, indeed, apprehend much—virtue and vice, joy and sorrow—in quite a different way from us, but towards whom we, on that account, by no means have the right to assume the position of superiority which the European is so ready to claim towards coloured races.

The greater portion of my short stay in Canton I employed in wandering about, carried in a sedan-chair—horses cannot be used in the city itself—through the streets, which are partly covered and are lined with open shops, forming, undoubtedly, the most remarkable of the many remarkable things that are to be seen here. The recollection I have of these hours forms, as often happens when one sees much that is new at once, a variegated confusion in which I can now only with difficulty distinguish a connected picture or two. But even if the impressions were clearer and sharper it would be out of the question to occupy space with a statement of my own superficial observations. If any one wishes to acquire a knowledge of Chinese manners and customs, he will not want for books on the country, his studies will rather be impeded by their enormous number, and often enough by the inferior nature of their contents. Here I shall only touch upon a single subject, because it especially interested me as a mineralogist, namely, the stone-polishing works of Canton.

It is natural that in a country so populous and rich as China, in which home and home life play so great a rôle, much money should be spent on ornaments. We might therefore have expected that precious stones cut and polished would be used here on a great scale, but from what I saw at Canton, the Chinese appear to set much less value on them than either the Hindoo or the European. It appears besides as if the Chinese still set greater value on stones with old "oriental polishing," i.e. with polished rounded surfaces, than on stones formed according to the mode of polishing now common in Europe with plane facets. Instead the Chinese have a great liking for peculiar, often very well executed, carvings in a great number of different kinds of stones, among which they set the greatest value on nephrite, or, as they themselves call it, "Yii." It is made into rings, bracelets, ornaments of all kinds, vases, small vessels for the table, &c. In Canton there are numerous lapidaries and merchants, whose main business is to make and sell ornaments of this species of stone, which is often valued higher than true precious stones. It was long so important an article of commerce that the place where it was found formed the goal of special caravan roads which entered China by the Yii gate. Amber also appears to have a high value put upon it, especially pieces which inclose insects. Amber is not found in China, but is brought from Europe, is often fictitious, and contains large Chinese beetles with marks of the needles on which they have been impaled. Other less valuable minerals, native or foreign, are also used, among others, compact varieties of talc or soap-stone and of pyrophyllite. But works executed in these minerals do not fetch a price at all comparable to that of nephrite. In the same shop in which I purchased pieces of nephrite carefully placed in separate boxes, I found at the bottom of a dusty chest, along with pieces of quartz and old refuse of various kinds, large crystals, some of which were exceedingly well formed, of translucent topaz. They were sold as quartz for a trifle. I bought besides two pieces of carved topaz, one of which was a large and very fine natural crystal, with a Chinese inscription engraved on its terminal surface, which when translated runs thus: "Literary studies confer honour and distinction and render a man suitable for the court." The other was a somewhat bluish inch-long crystal, at one end of which a human figure, perhaps some Buddhist saint, was sculptured. The polishing of stones is carried on as a home industry, principally in a special part of the town. The workshop is commonly at the side of a small sale counter, in a room on the ground-floor, open to the street. The cutting and polishing of the stones is done, as at home, with metal discs and emery or comminuted corundum, which is said to be found in large quantities in the neighbourhood of Canton.

Large, commodious, well fitted up, but in their exterior very unwieldy river steamers, built after American designs, now run between Hong Kong and Canton. They are commanded by Europeans. The dietary on board is European, and exceedingly good. There are separate saloons for Europeans and Chinese. All over the poop and the after-saloon weapons are hung up so as to be at hand, in case the vessel should be attacked by pirates, or, as happened some years ago, a number of them should mix themselves up with the Chinese passengers with the intention of plundering the vessel.

Hong Kong was ceded to England in consequence of the war of 1842. The then inconsiderable fishing village is now one of the most important commercial cities of the globe. The harbour is spacious, affording good anchorage, and is well protected by a number of large and small granite islands. The city is built on the largest of these on slopes which rise from the shore towards the interior of the island. On the highest points the wealthiest foreign residents have built their summer houses which are surrounded by beautiful gardens. In winter they live in the city. We here met with a very gratifying reception both from the Governor, Mr. POPE HENNESSY, and from the other inhabitants of the town. The former invited Captain Palander and me to live in the beautiful Governor's residence, gave a dinner, arranged a stately official reception in our honour, and presented to the Expedition a fine collection of dried plants from the exceedingly well-kept botanical garden of the city, which is under the charge of Mr. CHARLES FORD, the latter presented me with an address of welcome at a festive meeting in the City Hall, specially arranged for the purpose and numerously attended by the principal men of the town. The meeting was opened by the Chairman, Mr. KESWICK, with a speech of welcome, after which Mr. J. B. COUGHTRIE read and presented the address, bound in red silk and beautifully illuminated in black; gold, and red, with 414 signatures, among which many were by Chinese. The address ended with a hearty congratulation to us all and a promise of a memorial of our visit to Hong Kong which should indicate the way in which the Vega expedition was appreciated there. Some time after our return home Palander and I received from members of the community of Hong Kong a splendid silver vase each.

I here embraced with great interest the opportunity, which my coming in contact with the principal men of the place afforded, of getting a glance into the political relations which prevailed in this vigorous and promising colony. At first sight they appeared to be by no means satisfactory. Peace and unanimity evidently did not prevail; for dissatisfaction with the Governor was loudly expressed by many of the Europeans settled in Hong Kong. He favoured, they said, the Chinese in an exceedingly partial way, and mitigated their punishments to such a degree that Hong Kong would soon become a place of refuge for all the robbers and thieves of Canton. At the time of our visit an instructive parliamentary debate on a small scale was proceeding in the Legislative Council of the city. The controversy was carried on with a certain bitterness, but with a proper observance of the parliamentary procedure customary in the mother country. The eloquent leader of the opposition had evidently, as is usual in such cases, the general feeling of the Europeans on his side. For they appeared to be pretty well agreed that the only means of protecting themselves against the evil-doers from the great heavenly empire would be to punish them in an inhuman way when they were taken in the act.

To an outsider it appeared, however, that the Governor not only had humanity and justice on his side, but also acted with a true insight into the future. When he came to the colony the corporal punishments to which the Chinese were condemned were exceeding barbarous, although mild in comparison with those common in China—a state of things which the opposition brought forward in defence of the severer punishments. Prisoners were repeatedly flogged with "the cat," often with the result that they were attacked by incurable consumption, they were prepared for the punishment by being subjected for some time to a starvation-diet of rice and water; they were branded when they left the prison, &c. Proceeding on the view that the greatest security for a colony such as Hong Kong lies in the affection which is cherished for it by the numerous native population, the Governor had sought to protect it from unjust attacks by Europeans. Considering that too barbarous punishments are likely rather to promote than to deter from the commission of crimes, in consequence of the protection the criminal in such a case may reckon upon from sympathising fellow-creatures, and that mild punishments are the first condition of a good protective police, the Governor had diminished the floggings, forbidden the public infliction of the punishment, given a reprimand in cases where "by mistake" or by an evasion of the letter of the law extra strokes had been given to criminals, exchanged "the regulation cat" for the rattan, abolished the preliminary starvation-diet and the branding, improved the prisons, &c. All this was now loudly complained of by the European merchants, but was approved by the Chinese subjects in the colony, who were however dissuaded from making any contrary demonstrations.

When we came afterwards to other English possessions, we found that the inhabitants were often more or less in conflict with the authorities, but nowhere was there anything to prevent the opposition from endeavouring to promote their views by public meetings, by addresses in newspapers and pamphlets. In this way a pretty active political life arises early, and this is probably one of the main conditions of the capacity of the English colonies for self-government, and of their vigour and influence on the surrounding country.

It will in truth be highly interesting to see what influence will be exerted on the great neighbouring empire if Mr. Hennessy's politics with reference to the Chinese settled in Hong Kong be carried out, and they be converted into fellow-citizens conscious that they are protected by law in person and property, that they do not require to crawl in the dust before any authority, and that so long as they keep within the limits of the law they are quite safe from the oppressions of all officials, and in the enjoyment of all the rights and privileges which the English law confers upon the citizen.

Many of the Europeans settled at Hong Kong were convinced that for another thousand years one would be justified in using the expression regarding China: "Thou art what thou wast, and thou wilt be what thou art." Others again stated that contact with Europeans at Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Singapore, and the accounts given by the emigrants returning to China in thousands from California and Australia are by slow degrees changing the aspect of the world in the "heavenly empire," and thereby preparing for a revolution less violent, but as thorough as that which has recently taken place in Japan. If this comes about, China will be a state that must enter into the calculation when the affairs of the world are settled, and whose power will weigh very heavy in the scales, at least when the fate of Asia is concerned. At Hong Kong and Canton the report was current that the far-sighted Chancellor of the German Empire had taken this factor into calculation in settling his plans for the future.

Already the Chinese took part in the European life. A number of Chinese names, as I have already said, were attached to the address that was presented to me; at the Governor's reception many stout, smiling heads provided with pigtails were seen; and Chinese had taken part in the meetings at which the Governor's scheme of reform was under discussion. There have also existed in the country from time immemorial secret societies, which are said only to wait for a favourable opportunity to endeavour to link their fates to the new paths.[386] The observations that I made at Hong Kong and Canton are, however, too superficial for me to wish to detain my reader with these matters. I accordingly point to the numerous works on these cities published by authors who have lived there as many months or years as I have days, and proceed to sketch the continuation of the voyage of the Vega.

Accompanied by the good wishes of many newly acquired friends, we left the harbour of Hong Kong on the morning of the 9th November. It was my original intention to steer our course to Manilla, but the loss of time during our long stay in Japan compelled me to give up that plan. The course was shaped, however, not directly for Singapore, but for Labuan, a small English possession on the north side of Borneo. Its northern extremity (the coal mine) lies in 5° 33' N. L. and 115° 12' E.L. England took possession of Labuan on account of the coal-seams which are found there, which are of special importance on account of the situation of the island nearly in the midst of the large, numerous, and fertile islands of south-eastern Asia. It was the coal-seams too that attracted me to the place. For I wished to see whether I could not, in the neighbourhood of the equator itself, collect valuable contributions towards ascertaining the nature of the former equatorial climate.

We at first made rapid progress, thanks to a fresh and favourable monsoon wind. But when we reached the so-called belt of calms, the wind ceased completely, and we had now to avail ourselves of steam, which, in consequence of the low power of the Vega's engine and a strong counter current, carried us forward so slowly that it was not until the 17th November that we could anchor in the harbour of Labuan.

The largest of the islands belonging to the colony has, with a pretty considerable breadth, a length of 10' from N.E. to S. W. It is inhabited by some thousands (3,300 in 1863) of Chinese and Malays, together with a few Englishmen, who are either crown officials or employed at the coal mine. The north part of the island has a height of 140 metres above the sea, but towards the south the land sinks to an extensive sandy plain, closely overgrown with bushy thickets and traversed by low marshes. Most of the inhabitants live along the shore of the harbour which bears the now, or perhaps only for the present, indispensable name for English colonies (which on that account conveys little information) of Victoria. The Governor's fine residence lies at a little distance from the harbour town in the interior of the island, the coal mine on its north side. At the time of our visit the coal company had recently gone into liquidation, and work had therefore been stopped at the mine, but it was hoped that it would soon be resumed. The sandy plain is of little fertility in comparison with the neighbouring tropical lands. It had recently been burned, and was therefore for the most part covered only with bushes, among which stems of high, dried-up, half-burned trees raised themselves, giving to the landscape a resemblance to a northern forest devastated by an accidental fire. In consequence of the fire which had thus passed over the island the plain which, when looked at from a distance appeared to be completely even, was seen everywhere to be studded with crater-formed depressions in the sand, quite similar to the os-pits in the osar of Scandinavia.[387] On the north side there was sandstone rock rising from the sea with a steep slope six to fifteen metres high. Here tropical nature appeared in all its luxuriance, principally in the valleys which the small streams had excavated in the sandstone strata.

The coal mine is sunk on coal-seams, which come to the surface on the north side of the island. The seams, according to the information I received on the spot, are four in number, with a thickness of 3.3, 0.9, 0.4 and 1.0 metre. They dip at an angle of 30° towards the horizon, and are separated from each other by strata of clay and hard sandstone, which together have a thickness of about fifty metres. Above the uppermost coal-seam there are besides very thick strata of black clay-slate, white hard sandstone with bands of clay, loose sandstone, sandstone mixed with coal, and finally considerable layers of clay-slate and sandstone, which contain fossil marine crustacea, resembling those of the present time. The strata which lie between or in the immediate neighbourhood of the coal seams do not contain any other fossils than those vegetable remains, which are to be described farther on. Thirty kilometres south of the mine a nearly vertical coal-seam comes to the surface near the harbour, probably belonging to a much older period than that referred to above; and out in the sea, eighteen kilometres from the shore north of the harbour, petroleum rises from the sea-bottom. The manager of the mine supposed from this that the coal-seams came to the surface again at this place. The coal-seams of Labuan are besides, notwithstanding their position in the middle of an enormous, circular, volcanic chain, remarkably free from faults, which shows that the region, during the immense time which has elapsed since these strata have been deposited, has been protected from earthquakes. Even now, according to Wallace, earthquakes are scarcely known in this part of Borneo.

From what has been stated above we may conclude that the coal, sand, and clay strata were deposited in a valley-depression occupied by luxuriant marshy grounds, cut off from the sea, in the extensive land which formerly occupied considerable spaces of the sea between the Australian Islands and the continent of Asia. A similar state of things must besides have prevailed over a considerable portion of Borneo. On that island there are coal-seams under approximately similar circumstances to those on Labuan. So far as I know, however, they have not hitherto been closely examined with respect to vegetable palæontology.

At Labuan fossil plants are found, though very sparingly, imbedded in balls of clay ironstone from strata above the two lowermost coal-seams. The upper coal-seams are besides exceedingly rich in resin, which crosses the coal in large veins. From the thickness and conversion into a hard sandstone of the layers of sand lying between and above the coal-seams we may conclude that a very long time, probably hundreds of thousands or millions of years have passed since these coal-seams were formed. They also belong to a quite recent period, during which the vegetation in these regions varied perhaps only to a slight extent from that of the present time. It is, however, too early to express one's self on this subject, before the fossils which we brought home have been examined by Dr. Nathorst.

Coal mining was stopped for the time, but orders were expected by every post to resume work. The road between the mine and the harbour town was at all events pretty well kept, and Mr. COOKE, one of the directors of the company, still lived at the place. He showed me all possible hospitality during the time I remained on the north side of the island for the purpose of collecting fossils. The rest of the time I was the guest of the acting Governor, Mr. TREACHER, a young and amiable man, who showed me several collections in natural history from Labuan and the neighbouring parts of Borneo, and after our return to Europe sent me a collection of leaves and fruit of the kinds of trees which now grow on the island. I expect that this collection will be very instructive in the study of the fossil plants we brought home with us.

At the steep shore banks on the north coast very fine sections of the sandstone strata, which lie under and above the coal, are visible. While I went along the shore in order to examine these, I visited some Malay huts built on poles. They were surrounded at flood tide by water, at ebb by the dry beach, bare of all vegetation. In order to get inside these huts one must climb a ladder two to two and a half metres high, standing towards the sea. The houses have the same appearance as a warehouse by the seaside at home, and are built very slightly. The floor consisted of a few rattling bamboo splints lying loose, and so thin that I feared they would give way when I stepped upon them. The household articles consisted only of some mats and a pair of cooking vessels. I saw no fireplace; probably fire was lighted on the beach. I could see no reason why this place should be chosen as a dwelling in preference to the neighbouring shore with its luxuriant vegetation, which at the same time was not at all swampy, unless it was for the coolness which arises from the any situation on the beach, and the protection which the poles give from the thousands of crawling animals which swarm in the grassy meadows of tropical regions. It is probable also that the mosquitos are less troublesome along the sea-shore than farther into the interior of the country.

Some of my companions saw similar huts during an excursion, which they undertook in the steam launch, to the mouth of a large river debouching on the neighbouring coast of Borneo. Regarding this exclusion Dr. Stuxberg gives the following report:

"On the 19th November Palander, Bove, and I, together with two men, undertook an excursion in the steam launch of the Vega to the river Kalias debouching right opposite to Labuan. We started at dawn, a little after six o'clock. The course was shaped first north of Pappan Island, then between the many shoals that lie between it and the considerably larger Daat Island, and finally south of the latter island.

"Pappan Island is a small beautiful island, clothed down to high-water mark with a dark green primeval forest. On Daat Island, on the contrary, the primeval forest on the east side has been cut down, and has given place to a new plantation of cocoa-nut trees, the work of a former physician on Labuan, which yields its present owner a considerable revenue.

"We had no little difficulty in finding a way over the sandy bar, which is deposited in front of the river mouth at a distance of a nautical mile and a half to three miles from the coast of Borneo. After several attempts in the course of an hour we at last succeeded in finding the deep channel which leads to the river. It runs close to the mainland on the north side, from Kalias Point to the river mouth proper. At the bar the depth was only a metre, in the deep channel, it varied between 3.5 and 7 metres, in the river mouth it was fourteen to eighteen metres and sometimes more.

"On the south side of the tongue of land, which projects north of the mouth of the Kalias, were found two Malay villages, whose inhabitants appeared to view our passage up the river with curious glances. A crowd of half or wholly naked children began a race along the shore, as soon as they set eyes upon the fast steam launch, probably in order to keep us in sight as long as possible. We now had deep water and steamed up the river without delay. The longed-for visit to some of the Malay villages we thus reserved till our return.

"We steamed about ten or twelve English miles up one of the many winding river arms, when the limited depth compelled us to turn. The vegetation on the mainland, as on the shores of the islands lying near the river-mouth, was everywhere so close that it was nearly impossible to find a place where we could land; everywhere there was the impenetrable primeval forest. Next the mouth of the river this consisted of tall, shady broad-leaved trees, which all had dark green, lustrous, large leaves. Some were in flower, others bore fruit. The greater number consisted of fig trees, whose numerous air-roots twining close on each other formed an impenetrable fence at the river bank. These air-root-bearing trees play an important rôle in increasing the area of the land and diminishing that of the water. They send their strong air-roots from the branches and stem far out into the water, and when the roots have reached the bottom, and pushed their way into the mud, they make, by the close basket-work they form, an excellent binding medium for all the new mud which the river carries with it from the higher ground in the interior. It has struck me that the air-root-bearing trees form one of the most important means for the rapid increase of the alluvial land on Borneo. Farther up the river there commenced large stretches of a species of palm, which with its somewhat lighter green and its long sheath-formed leaves was sharply distinguished from the rest of the forest. Sometimes the banks on one side were covered with palms only, on the other with fig-trees only. The palm jungles were not so impenetrable as the fig-tree thickets, the latter preferred the more swampy hollows, while the palms on the other hand grew on the more sandy and less marshy places. Of herbs and underwood there was nowhere any trace.

"During the river voyage we saw now and then single green-coloured kingfishers flying about, and a honeysucker or two, but they were not nearly so numerous as might have been expected in this purely tropical zone. We saw some apes leaping in pairs among the trees, and Palander succeeded in shooting a male. Alligators from one to one and a half metre in length, frightened by the noise of the propeller, throw themselves suddenly into the water. Small land lizards with web-feet jumped forward with surprising rapidity on the water near the banks. This was all we saw of the higher animals.

"After a run of two hours, during which we examined the banks carefully in order to find a landing place, we lay to at the best possible place for seeing what the lower fauna had to offer. It was no easy matter to get to land. The ground was so muddy that we sank to the knees, and could make our way through the wood only by walking on an intermediate layer of palm leaves and fallen branches. The search for evertebrates did not yield very much. A half-score mollusca, among them a very remarkable naked leech of quite the same colour-marking and raggedness as the bark of tree on which it lived, was all that we could find here. It struck me as very peculiar not to find a single insect group represented. The remarkable poverty in animals must be ascribed, I believe, to the complete absence of herbs and underwood. Animal life was as poor as vegetation was luxuriant and various in different places. Over the landscape a peculiar quietness and stillness rested.

"During our return we visited one of the two Malay villages mentioned above. It consisted of ten different houses, which were built on tall and stout poles out in the water at the mouth of the river, about six to ten metres from the shore. All the houses were built on a common large platform of thick bamboo, which was about a man's height above the water. At right angles to the beach there floated long beams, one end being connected with the land, while the other was anchored close to the platform. From this anchored end a plank rose at a steep angle to the platform. Communication with land was kept up in this way. The houses were nearly all quadrangular, and contained a single room, had raised, not flat roofs, and were provided at one of the shorter sides, near one corner, with a high rectangular door opening, which certainly was not intended to be closed, and on one of the long sides with a square window-opening. The building material was bamboo, from eight to eleven centimetres in thickness, mostly whole, but sometimes cleft. The roof had a thin layer of palm leaves upon it to keep out the rain. The house in its entirety resembled a cage of spills to which the least puff of wind had always free entrance. The floor bent and yielded much, and at the same time was so weak that one could not walk upon it without being afraid of falling through. One half, right opposite the door opening, was overlaid with a thin mat of some plant; it was evidently the sleeping place of the family. Some pieces of cloth was all the clothing we could discover. Of household articles there was scarcely any trace. Nor were there any weapons, arrows, or bows. The fireplace was in one corner of the room; it consisted of an immense ash-heap on some low stones. Beside it stood a rather dirty iron pot. All refuse from meals, bones and mollusc-shells, had been thrown into the water under the floor; there lay now a regular culture-layer, a couple of feet higher than the surrounding sea-bottom, consisting for the most part of mussel shells. The floor of the room was very dirty and black; it looked as if it had never been in contact with a drop of water. The interior of the whole house struck one as being as poor and wretched as that of a Chukch tent. Its inhabitants appeared scarcely to own more than they stood or walked in, i.e. for every person a large piece of cloth round the waist. Small boats lay moored to the platform. They were nothing else than tree-stems hollowed out, without any separate planks at the sides, at most two to two and a half metres long, and capable of carrying only two men. We had met such a boat a little way up the river, rowed by two youths, and laden with palm-leaves, it was not more than five to eight centimetres above the water, and appeared as if it would capsize with the least indiscreet movement on the part of the boatmen. Some dogs of middle size went about loose on the platform; they were at first shy and suspicious of us, and growled a little, but soon allowed themselves to be caressed.

"Of the natives, the Malays, unfortunately we saw at close quarters only some middle-aged men. When we approached the long floating beams which led to the platform, the women and children fled precipitately out of the nearest houses, and by the time we got to the platform, they had fortified themselves in a distant house, where they sat motionless and cast curious glances at us through a hole. The children showed their fear of us by loud crying, kept up the whole time. When we attempted to approach the fugitives, they hastened farther away. We won their favour with some cigarettes, which Palander distributed among them, and with which they were evidently delighted. They had a serious, reserved, perhaps rather indifferent appearance. A physiognomist would perhaps have had difficulty in saying whether their countenances expressed ferocity, determination, or indifference. It appeared as if it would not be easy to bring forth a look of mirth or gladness on their faces.

"At the Malay villages which we visited, some Chinese had a sago plantation. With some Malays as workmen in their service, they were now employed in loading a vessel of light draught with sago meal, of which they appeared to have a large quantity in store. Another vessel had just taken on board its cargo and was starting. The Chinese here made the same favourable impression on me as their countrymen, whom I had seen before in Japan and Hong Kong, and whom I was afterwards to see at Singapore—the impression of an exceedingly industrious, thriving, contented, and cleanly race."

Labuan strikes me as a very suitable starting-point for a naturalist who may wish to explore Borneo. Surrounded by Europeans, but undisturbed by the distractions of a large city, he would have an opportunity of accustoming himself to the climate, which, though rather warm for a dweller in the North, is by no means unhealthy, to get acquainted with the manners and customs of the natives, to acquire a knowledge of the commonest forms of the luxuriant nature, which would otherwise be apt to overwhelm the northern naturalist, in a word, to make such preparations for the journey as are necessary to secure its success. This region of Borneo appears to be one of the least known parts of the Indian Archipelago, and one need not go far from the coast to come to places which are never visited by Europeans. Labuan itself and its immediate neighbourhood have much that is interesting to offer to the observer, and from thence short excursions may be made with ease and without excessive cost to the territory of the Sultan of Bruni, who is favourable to foreigners, and to the mountain Kini Balu, near the northern extremity of Borneo, which is 4,175 metres high, and visible from Labuan. When, before our arrival at Japan, I arranged the plan of our voyage home, I included in it a visit to this mountain, at whose summit a comparatively severe climate must prevail, and whose flora and fauna, therefore, notwithstanding its equatorial position, must offer many points of comparison with those of the lands of the north. But when I was told that the excursion would require weeks, I had to give it up.

On the 12th November, the Vega again weighed anchor to continue her voyage by Singapore to Point de Galle in Ceylon. Between Labuan and Singapore our progress was but slow, in consequence of the calm which, as might have been foreseen, prevailed in the sea west of Borneo.

Singapore is situated exactly halfway, when a vessel, starting from Sweden, circumnavigates Asia and Europe. We staid here from the 28th November to the 4th December, very hospitably received by the citizens of the town, both European and Asiatic, who seemed to vie with the inhabitants of Hong Kong in enthusiasm for the voyage of the Vega. A Babel-like confusion of speech prevails in the town from the men of so many different nationalities who live here: Chinese, Malays, Klings, Bengalees, Parsees, Singhalese, Negroes, Arabs, &c. But our stay was all too short for independent studies of the customs and mode of life of these different races, or of the rich vegetable and animal worlds in the neighbourhood of the town. I must refer those who are interested in these subjects to previous descriptions of that region, and to the abundant contributions to a knowledge of it which have been published by the Straits Branch of the Asiatic Society, which was founded here on the 4th November, 1877.

We arrived at Galle on the 15th December, having during our passage from Singapore had a pretty steady and favourable monsoon. While sailing through the Straits of Malacca strong ball-lightning was often seen a little after sunset. The electrical discharges appeared to go on principally from the mountain heights on both sides of the Straits.

I allowed the Vega to remain in the harbour of Point de Galle, partly to wait for the mail, partly to give Dr. Almquist an opportunity of collecting lichens on some of the high mountain summits in the interior of the island, and Dr. Kjellman of examining its algæ, while I myself would have time to visit the famous gem-diggings of Ceylon. The return was as good as could have been expected considering our short stay at the place. Dr. Almquist's collection of lichens from the highest mountain of Ceylon, Pedrotalagalla, 2,500 metres high, was very large, Kjellman, by the help of a diver, made a not inconsiderable collection of algæ from the neighbourhood of the harbour, and from an exclusion which I undertook in company with Mr. ALEXANDER C. DIXON, of Colombo, to Ratnapoora, the town of gems, where we were received with special kindness by Mr. COLIN MURRAY, assistant government agent, I brought home a fine collection of the minerals of Ceylon.

Precious stones occur in Ceylon mainly in sand beds, especially at places where streams of water have flowed which have rolled, crumbled down, and washed away a large part of the softer constituents of the sand, so that a gravel has been left remaining which contains considerably more of the harder precious stone layer than the original sandy strata, or the rock from which they originated. Where this natural washing ends, the gem collector begins. He searches for a suitable valley, digs down a greater or less depth from the surface to the layer of clay mixed with coarse sand resting on the rock, which experience has taught him to contain gems[388]. At the washings which I saw, the clayey gravel was taken out of this layer and laid by the side of the hole until three or four cubic metres of it were collected. It was then carried, in shallow, bowl-formed baskets from half a metre to a metre in diameter, to a neighbouring river, where it was washed until all the clay was carried away from the sand. The gems were then picked out, a person with a glance of the eye examining the wet surface of the sand and collecting whatever had more or less appearance of a precious stone. He then skimmed away with the palm of the hand the upper stratum of sand, and went on in the same way with that below it until the whole mass was examined. The certainty with which he judged in a moment whether there was anything of value among the many thousand grains of sand was wonderful. I endeavoured in a very considerable heap of the gravel thus hastily examined, to find a single small piece of precious stone which had escaped the glance of the examiner, but without success.

The yield is very variable, sometimes abundant, sometimes very small, and though precious stones found in Ceylon are yearly sold for large sums, the industry on the whole is unprofitable, although now and then a favourite of fortune has been enriched by it. The English authorities, therefore, with full justification, consider it demoralising and unfavourable to the development of the otherwise abundant natural resources of the region. For the numerous loose population devotes itself rather to the easy search for precious stones, which is as exciting as play, than to the severer but surer labours of agriculture, and when at any time a rich find is made, it is speedily squandered, without a thought of saving for the times when the yield is little or nothing. A large number of the precious stones are polished at special polishing places at Ratnapoora, but the work is very bad, so that the stones which come into the market are often irregular, and have uneven, curved, ill-polished surfaces. Most of them perhaps are sold in the Eastern and Western Indian peninsulas and other parts of Asia, but many are also exported to Europe. The precious stones which are principally found at Ratnapoora, consist of sapphires, commonly blue, but sometimes yellow or violet, sometimes even completely colourless. In the last case they have a lustre resembling that of the diamond[389]. Rubies I saw here only in limited numbers.

The precious stones occur in nearly every river valley which runs from the mountain heights in the interior of the island down to the low land. According to a statement by Mr. Tennent (i. p. 33), the river-sand at many places contains so much of the harder minerals that it may be used directly for the polishing of other stones. The same writer, or more correctly Dr. GYGAX, who appears to have written the rather scanty mineralogical contributions to Tennent's famous work, states that a more abundant yield ought to be obtained by working in the solid rock than by the usual method. This idea is completely opposed to the experience of mineralogy. The finest gems, the largest gold nuggets, as is well known, are never, or almost never, found in solid rock, but in loose earthy layers. In such layers in Ceylon the abundance of precious stones, that is to say, of minerals which are hard, translucent, and strongly lustrous, is very great, and enormous sums would be obtained if we could add up the value of the mass of precious stones which have been found here for thousands of years back. Already Marco Polo says of Ceylon: "In ista insula nascuntur boni et nobiles rubini et non nascuntur in aliquo loco plus. Et hic nascuntur zafiri et topazii, ametisti, et aliquæ aliæ petræ pretiosæ, et rex istius insulæ habet pulcriorem rubinum de mundo".

But some one perhaps will ask, where is the mother-rock of all these treasures in the soil of Ceylon? The question is easily answered. All these minerals have once been imbedded in the granitic gneiss, which is the principal rock of the region.

In speaking of granite or gneiss in southern lands, or at least in the southern lands we now visited, I must, in the first place, point out that these rocks next the surface of the earth in the south have a much greater resemblance to strata of sand, gravel, and clay than to our granite or gneiss rocks, the type of what is lasting, hard, and unchangeable. The high coast hills, which surround the Inland Sea of Japan, resemble, when seen from the sea, ridges of sand (osar) with sides partly clothed with wood, partly sandy slopes of a light yellow colour, covered by no vegetation. On a closer examination, however, we find that the supposed sandy ridges consist of weathered granitic rocks, in which all possible intermediate stages may be seen between the solid rock and the loose sand. The sand is not stratified, and contains large, loose, rounded blocks in situ, completely resembling the erratic blocks in Sweden, although with a more rugged surface. The boundary between the unweathered granite and that which has been converted into sand is often so sharp that a stroke of the hammer separates the crust of granitic sand from the granite blocks. They have an almost fresh surface, and a couple of millimetres within the boundary the rock is quite unaltered. No formation of clay takes place, and the alteration to which the rocks are subjected therefore consists in a crumbling or formation of sand, and not, or at least only to a very small extent, in a chemical change. Even at Hong Kong the principal rock consisted of granite. Here too the surface of the granite rock was quite altered to a very considerable depth, not however to sand, but to a fine, often reddish, clay, thus in quite a different way from that on the coast of the Inland Sea of Japan. Here too one could at many places follow completely the change of the hard granite mass to a clay which still lay in situ, but without its being possible to draw so sharp a boundary between the primitive rock and the newly-formed loose earthy layers as at the first-named place. We had opportunities of observing a similar crumbling down of the hard granite at every road-section between Galle, Colombo, and Ratnapoora, with the difference that the granite and gneiss here crumbled down to a coarse sand, which was again bound together by newly-formed hydrated peroxide of iron to a peculiar porous sandstone, called by the natives cabook. This sandstone forms the layer lying next the rock in nearly all the hills on that part of the island which we visited. It evidently belongs to an earlier geological period than the Quaternary, for it is older than the recent formation of valleys and rivers. The cabook often contains large, rounded, unweathered granite blocks, quite resembling the rolled-stone blocks in Sweden. In this way there arise at places where the cabook stratum has again been broken up and washed away by currents of water, formations which are so bewilderingly like the ridges (osar) and hills with erratic blocks in Sweden and Finland that I was astonished when I saw them. I was compelled to resort to the evidence of the palms to convince myself that it was not an illusion which unrolled before me the well-known contours from the downs of my native land. An accurate study of the sandy hills on the Inland Sea of Japan, of the clay cliffs of Hong Kong, and the cabook of Ceylon would certainly yield very unexpected contributions to an explanation of the way in which the sand and rolled-stone osar of Scandinavia have first arisen. It would show that much which the Swedish geologists still consider to be glacial gravel transported by water and ice, is only the product of a process of weathering or, more correctly, falling asunder, which has gone on in Sweden also on an enormous scale. Even a portion of our Quaternary clays have perhaps had a similar origin, and we find here a simple explanation of the important circumstance, which is not sufficiently attended to by our geologists, that often all the erratic blocks at a place are of the same kind, and resemble in their nature the underlying or neighbouring rocks

It is this weathering process which has originated the gem sand of Ceylon. Precious stones have been found disseminated in limited numbers in the granite converted into cabook. In weathering, the difficultly decomposable precious stones have not been attacked, or attacked only to a limited extent. They have therefore retained their original form and hardness. When in the course of thousands of years streams of water have flowed over the layers of cabook, their soft, already half-weathered constituents have been for the most part changed into a fine mud, and as such washed away, while the hard gems have only been inconsiderably rounded and little diminished in size. The current of water therefore has not been able to wash them far away from the place where they were originally imbedded in the rock, and we now find them collected in the gravel-bed, resting for the most part on the fundamental rock which the stream has left behind, and which afterwards, when the water has changed its course, has been again covered by new layers of mud, clay, and sand. It is this gravel-bed which the natives call nellan, and from which they chiefly get their treasures of precious stones.

Of all the kinds of stones which are used as ornaments there are both noble and common varieties, without there being any perceptible difference in their chemical composition. The most skilful chemist would thus have difficulty in finding in their chemical composition the least difference between corundum and sapphire or ruby, between common beryl and emerald, between the precious and the common topaz, between the hyacinth and the common zircon, between precious and common spinel; and every mineralogist knows that there are innumerable intermediate stages between these minerals which are so dissimilar though absolutely identical in composition. This gave the old naturalists occasion to speak of ripe and unripe precious stones. They said that in order to ripen precious stones the heat of the south was required. This transference of well-known circumstances from the vegetable to the mineral kingdom is certainly without justification. It points however to a remarkable and hitherto unexplained circumstance, namely, that the occurrence of precious stones is, with few exceptions, confined to southern regions[390]. Diamonds are found in noteworthy number only in India, Borneo, Brazil, and the Transvaal. Tropical America is the home-land of the emerald, Brazil of the topaz, Ceylon of the sapphire and the hyacinth, Pegu of the ruby, and Persia of the turquoise. With the exception of the diamond the same stones are found also in the north, but in a common form. Thus common sapphire (corundum) is found in Gellivare iron ore so plentifully that the ore from certain openings is difficult to smelt. Common topaz is found in masses by the hundredweight in the neighbourhood of Falun; common emerald is found in thick crystals several feet in length in felspar quarries, in Roslagen, and in Tammela and Kisko parishes in Finland; common spinel occurs abundantly in Åker limestone quarry; common zircon at Brevig in Norway, and turquoise-like but badly coloured stones at Vestanå in Skane. True precious stones, on the other hand, are not found at any of these places. Another remarkable fact in connection with precious stones is that most of those that come into the market are not found in the solid rock, but as loose grains in sand-beds. True jewel mines are few, unproductive, and easily exhausted. From this one would be inclined to suppose that precious stones actually undergo an ennobling process in the warm soil of the south.

During the excursion I undertook from Galle to Ratnapoora, I visited a number of temples in order to procure Pali, Singhalese, and Sanscrit manuscripts; and I put myself in communication with various natives who were supposed to possess such manuscripts. They are now very difficult to get at, and the collection I made was not very large. The books which the temples wished to dispose of have long ago been eagerly brought up by private collectors or handed over to public museums, for example, to the Ceylon Government Oriental Library established at Colombo[391]. The collector who remains a considerable time in the region, may however be able to reap a rich after-harvest, less of the classical works preserved in the temples than of the smaller popular writings in the hands of private persons.

We see in Ceylon innumerable descendants of the races who repeatedly subdued larger or smaller portions of the island, or carried on traffic there, as Moormen (Arabs), Hindoos, Jews, Portuguese, Dutchmen, Englishmen, &c., but the main body of the people at all events varies very little, and still consists of the two allied races, Tamils and Singhalese, who for thousands of years back have been settled here. The colour of their skin is very dark, almost black, their hair is not woolly, their features are regular, and their build is exceedingly fine. The children especially, who, while they are small, often go completely naked, with their regular features, their large eyes, and fresh plump bodies, are veritable types of beauty, and the same holds true of most of the youths. Instead of buying in one of the capitals of Europe the right to draw models, often enough with forms which leave much to desire, and which must be used without distinction for Greek or Northern divinities, for heroes or savants of the present or former times, an artist ought to make tours of study to the lands of the south, where man does not need to protect himself from the cold with clothes, and where accordingly nakedness is the rule, at least among the poorer classes. The dress which is worn here is commonly convenient and tasteful. Among the Singhalese it consists of a piece of cloth wound round the middle, which hangs down to the knees. The men, who still prefer the convenient national dress to the European, go with the upper part of the body bare. The long hair is held together with a comb which goes right over the head, and among the rich has a large four-cornered projection at the crown. The women protect the upper part of the body with a thin cotton jacket. The priests wear a yellow piece of cloth diagonally over one shoulder. The naked children are ornamented with metal bracelets and with a metal chain round the waist, from which a little plate hangs down between the legs. This plate is often of silver or gold, and is looked upon as an amulet.

The huts of the working men are in general very small, built of earth or cabook-bricks, and are rather to be considered as sheds for protection from the rain and sunshine than as houses in the European sense. The richer Singhalese live in extensive "verandas" which are almost open, and are divided into rooms by thin panels, resembling in this respect the Japanese houses. The Japanese genius for ornament, their excellent taste and skill in execution, are however wanting here, but it must also be admitted that in these respects the Japanese stand first among all the peoples of the earth.

In the seaport towns the Singhalese are insufferable by their begging, their loquacity, and the unpleasant custom they have of asking up to ten times as much, while making a bargain, as they are pleased to accept in the end. In the interior of the country the state of things in this respect is much better.

Among the temples which I visited in order to procure Pali books was the so-called "devil's" temple at Ratnapoora, the stateliest idol-house I saw in Ceylon. Most of the temples were built of wood; all were exceedingly unpretentious, and without the least trace of style. The numerous priests and temple attendants lived in rather squalid and disorderly dwellings in the neighbourhood of the temple. They received me in a friendly way and showed me their books, of which they occasionally sold some. The negotiation several times ended by the priest presenting me with the book I wished to purchase and positively refusing to receive compensation in any form. On one occasion the priest stated that he himself was prevented by the precepts of his religion from receiving the purchase-money agreed upon, but said that I might hand it over to some of the

persons standing round. At two of the priests' houses there was a swarm of school-children, who ran busily about with their palm-leaf writing books and writing implements.

The temples were very different in their arrangements, probably on account of the dissimilar usages of the various Buddhist sects to which they belonged. A temple near Colombo contained a large number of wooden images and paintings of gods, or men of more than human size. Most of them stood upright like a guard round a sitting Buddha. I could not observe any dislike on the part of the priests to take the foreigner round their temples. The key, however, was sometimes wanting to some repository, whose contents they were perhaps unwilling to desecrate by showing them to the unbeliever. This was, for instance, the case with the press which contained the devil's bow and arrows, in the temple at Ratnapoora. The temple vessels besides were exceedingly ugly, tasteless, and ill-kept. I seldom saw anything that showed any sign of taste, art, and orderliness. How different from Japan, where all the swords, lacquer work, braziers, teacups, &c., kept in the better temples would deserve a place in some of the art museums of Europe.

In the sketch of the first voyage from Novaya Zemlya to Ceylon, a countryman of Lidner can scarcely avoid giving a picture of "Ceylon's burned up vales." In this respect the following extract from a letter from Dr. Almquist, sketching his journey to the interior of the island may be instructive:—

"Three hours after our arrival at Point de Galle I sat properly stowed away in the mail-coach en route for Colombo. As travelling companions I had a European and two Singhalese. As it was already pretty dusk in the evening there was not much of the surrounding landscape visible. We went on the whole night through a forest of tall coco-nut trees whose dark tops were visible far up in the air against the somewhat lighter sky. It was peculiar to see the number of fire-flies flying in every direction, and at every wing-stroke emiting a bright flash. The night air had the warm moistness which is so agreeable in the tropics. Now and then the sound of the sea penetrated to our ears. For we followed the west coast in a northerly direction. More could not be observed in the course of the night, and all the passengers were soon sunk in deep sleep.

"After seven hours' brisk trot we came to a railway station and continued our journey by rail to Colombo, the capital of Ceylon. As there was nothing special to see or do there, I went on without stopping by the railway, which here bends from the coast to Kandy and other places. The landscape now soon became grander and grander. We had indeed before seen tropical vegetation at several places, but of the luxuriance which here struck the eye we had no conception. The pity was that men had come hither, had cleared and planted.

"In the lowlands I saw some cinnamon plantations. Ceylon cinnamon is very dear; in Europe cheaper and inferior sorts are used almost exclusively, and most of the plantations in Ceylon have been abandoned many years ago. Soon the train leaves the lowland and begins to ascend rapidly. The patch of coast country, where the coco-nut trees prevail, is exchanged for a very mountainous landscape; first hills with large open valleys between, then higher continuous mountains with narrow, deep, kettle-like valleys, or open hilly plateaus. In the valleys rice is principally cultivated. The hills and mountain sides were probably originally covered with the most luxuriant primitive forest, but now on all the slopes up to the mountain summits it is cut down, and they are covered with coffee plantations. The coffee-plant is indeed very pretty, but grows at such a distance apart that the ground is everywhere visible between, and this is a wretched covering for luxuriant Ceylon.

"At two o'clock in the afternoon we arrived at the station, Perideniya, the nearest one to Kandy. The famous botanical garden lies in its neighbourhood, and there I had to visit the superintendent of the garden, Dr. THWAITES. This elderly, but still active and enthusiastic naturalist is exceedingly interested in botanical research, and very obliging to all who work in that department. He received me in a very friendly manner, and it was due to him that the programme of my visit there was so full.

"A botanic garden in Ceylon must naturally be something extraordinary. Nowhere else can grander or more luxuriant vegetation be seen than here. The garden has been especially famous for the number of different varieties of trees of immense size which it can show. Besides, all possible better known plants are to be found here, cultivated in the finest specimens. Spices

and drugs were specially well represented. Here long tendrils of the black pepper-plant wound themselves up the thick tree-stems, here the cardamon and the ginger flourished, here the

pretty cinnamon, camphor, cinchona, nutmeg, and cocoa trees made a splendid show, here I saw a newly gathered harvest of vanilla. The abundance of things to be seen, learned, and enjoyed here was incredible. However, the next day I determined on the advice of Dr. Thwaites to make a tour up to the mountain localities proper, in order there to get a better sight of the lichen flora of Ceylon.

"I now travelled south partly by rail, partly by coach, until in the evening I found myself lodged at a 'rest-house' at Rambodde, a thousand metres above the sea, at about the same height accordingly as that at which trees cease to grow in southern Norway. This tropical mountain land reminds one a little, in respect of the contours of the landscape, of the fells of Norway. Here too are found league-long deep valleys, surrounded by high mountain summits and ranges with outlines sharply marked against the horizon. But here they were everywhere overgrown with coffee bushes, or possibly with cinchona plants. The mountain slopes were so laid bare from the bottom all the way up that scarce a tree was left in sight; everywhere so far as the eye could reach only coffee.

"Next day, attended by a Singhalese, I went, or to speak more correctly, climbed farther up the steep coffee plantations. At a height of 1,300 metres above the sea coffee ceases to grow, and we now found some not very extensive tea plantations, and above these the primitive forest commences. At a height of 1,900 metres above the sea there is an extensive open plateau. Up here there is a not inconsiderable place, Novara Elliya, where the governor has a residence, and part of the troops are in barracks during the summer heat. One of the mountains which surround this plateau is Pedrotalagalla, the loftiest mountain of Ceylon, which reaches a height of 2,500 metres above the sea.

"I have ascended not so few mountains, but of none has the ascent been so easy as of this, for a broad footpath ran all the way to the top. Without this path the ascent had been impossible, for an hour's time would have been required for every foot made good through the jungle, so closely is the ground under the lofty trees covered to the top of the mountain with bushes, creepers, or the bamboo. In the evening I returned to my former night-quarters, where I slept well after a walk of thirty-six English miles.

"As I felt myself altogether unable the following day to make any further excursion on foot, I travelled back to Peradeniya by mail-coach. During this journey I had as my travelling companion a Singhalese, whom it was a special pleasure to see at close quarters. One of his big toes was ornamented with a broad ring of silver, both his ears were pierced above, and provided with some pendulous ornament, and one side of the nose was likewise perforated, in order that at that place too might he adorn himself with a piece of grandeur. On his head he had, like all Singhalese, a comb by which the hair drawn right upwards is kept in position, as little girls at home are wont to have their hair arranged. As the man did not appear to know a word of English, it was impossible to enter into any closer acquaintance with him.

"At noon on the following day I found myself compelled, by a quite unexpected occurrence, to return precipitately to the coast again. Dr. Thwaites and I had been invited to dinner by his Excellency the Governor. As I was still limping after my long excursion on foot, and besides had not had the forethought to take a dress-suit with me, I considered that, vexatious as it was to decline, I could not accept this gracious invitation, but instead went my way. Thus after six exceedingly pleasant days I came back to Point de Galle and the Vega".

FOOTNOTES:

[385] Yet with one very laughable exception. I wished for zoological purposes to get one of the common Chinese rats, and with this object in view made inquiries through my interpreter at a shed in the street, where rats were said to be cooked for Chinese epicures. But scarcely had the question been put, when the old, grave host broke out in a furious storm of abuse, especially against the interpreter, who was overwhelmed with bitter reproaches for helping a "foreign devil" to make a fool of his own countrymen. All my protestations were in vain, and I had to go away with my object unaccomplished.

[386] See on this subject W. A. Pickering, "Chinese Secret Societies" (Journal of the Straits Branch of the R. Asiatic Society, 1878, No. 1, pp. 63-84)

[387] Concerning their formation and origin see a paper by K. Nordenskiöld in Öfversigt af Vet.-akad Förh 1870, p 29.

[388] Emerson Tennent says on the subject:—The gem collectors penetrate through the recent strata of gravel to the depth of from ten to twenty feet in order to reach a lower deposit, distinguished by the name of Nellan, in which the objects of their search are found. This is of so early a formation that it underlies the present beds of rivers, and is generally separated from them or from the superincumbent gravel by a hard crust (called Kadua), a few inches in thickness, and so consolidated as to have somewhat the appearance of laterite or sun-burnt brick. The nellan is for the most part horizontal, but occasionally it is raised into an incline as it approaches the base of the hills. It appears to have been deposited previous to the eruption of the basalt, on which in some places it reclines, and to have undergone some alteration from the contact. It consists of water-worn pebbles firmly imbedded in clay, and occasionally there occur large lumps of granite and gneiss, in the hollows under which, as well as in "pockets" in the clay (which from their shape the natives denominate "elephants' footsteps "), gems are frequently found in groups, as if washed in by the current. (E. Tennent, Ceylon London, 1860, i. p. 34.)

[389] Diamonds are wanting in Ceylon. And neither gold nor platinum appears to occur in noteworthy quantity in the gem gravel.

[390] The only considerable exceptions from this are two localities for precious stones in Southern Siberia and the occurrence of precious opal in Hungary. The latter, however, in consequence of defective hardness and translucency, can scarcely be reckoned among the true precious stones.

[391] The Catalogue of Pali, Singhalese, and Sanscrit Manuscripts in the Ceylon Government Oriental Library, Colombo, 1876, includes:— Ceylon Government Oriental Library, Colombo, 1876, includes:—
41 Buddhist canonical books
71 Other religious writings
25 Historical works, traditions
29 Philological works
16 Literary works
6 Works on Medicine, Astronomy, &c.

According to Emerson Tennent (i. p. 515), the Rev. R. Spence Hardy has in the Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Asiatic Society for 1848 given the titles of 467 works in Pali, Sanskrit, and Elu, collected by himself during his residence in Ceylon. Of these about eighty are in Sanskrit, 150 in Elu or Singhalese, and the remainder in Pali.