[271] The Telegraph. Telegraphic communication with India is now so far perfect, that electricity outstrips the speed of the earth, as it frequently happens that messages transmitted from Calcutta at noon to London are delivered by the Indo-European Telegraph Company at 10.30 A.M. Communication between London and Teherán (the terminus of the Indian Government lines) is actually instantaneous.—Times, 5 April, 1870.
[272] Vincent, vol. i. p. 509.
[273] Pliny, xii. c. 11.
[274] Arrian, “Exp. Alex.” vii. 25.
[275] Pliny, vi. 88.
[276] Ammianus speaks of ambassadors from Ceylon to the Emperor Julian, xx. 4.
[277] Arrian, “Periplus,” 13 to 36.
[278] This treatise of Cosmas exists in Montfaucon: Bibl. Nov. Patrum. ii. p. 336.
[279] One thousand amphoræ are equal to about thirty-three tons.
[280] Tennent’s “Ceylon,” vol. i. p. 575.