pice and fragrance and beauty.

CHAPTER XXVI.

TO ADEN.

_Heaven speed the canvas, gallantly unfurled_
_To furnish and accommodate a world,_
_To give the Pole the produce of the sun,_
_And knit the unsocial climates into one._

_Friday, April 6th_.--Our visit to Ceylon has been so delightful that
I wish it could have been prolonged for a month, instead of lasting
only a week; but in that case I should have preferred to select a
cooler season of the year, when travelling is more practicable. A most
interesting journey could be made through the centre of the island to
see the ancient cities, temples, and tanks, over the road from Matelle
to Nalandi Senadoora, to the curious rock temple at Dambool, near
which is the fortified rock of Sigiri, and a few miles further are the
vast ruins of Topari, or Ponamira, the mediaeval capital of Ceylon. It
is full of wonderful ruins, some of them among the oldest in the
world. The Ranhol Dagoba, the Jayti Wana Rama, and the Galle Wihara
and rock temple, carved out of the living rock, are alone worth a long
journey to see. Then think of visiting Anajapoora, the city of rubies,
the sacred capital of the kingdom of ruins, on whose splendours even
the Chinese travellers of the early ages used to expatiate with
fervour. From this point it would be easy to reach the peninsula of
Jaffna, which has been peopled with Tammils for more than two thousand
years. It is the country _par excellence_ of gardens exquisitely kept,
and skilfully irrigated on the old Moorish system. Here are grown all
the ingredients for the making of curry, which are sent to all parts
of this island and to Southern India. The most important crop of all,
however, is tobacco, whose excellence is famed throughout India, and
of which the Rajah of Travancore holds the monopoly.

Then one might go southward from Jaffna, past Aripo, and the Gulf of
Calpentyn, until the curious reef of Adam's Bridge was reached, which
almost connects Ceylon with India. People say it has been separated by
some convulsion of nature in former days, and that the passage is
gradually deepening; but recent examinations have shown that instead
of being a remnant of the original rock by which Ceylon is supposed to
have been once connected with the Indian continent, it is in reality a
comparatively recent ridge of conglomerate and ironstone, covered with
alluvial deposits carried by the current and heaped up at this
particula