all sizes, from widespread lakes
to mere ponds, designed to irrigate circumscribed districts. There was
a time when each town and village, at least all that lay to the north
of the mountain range which divides the island, had its reservoir. The
first one spoken of in this chapter was built by King Penduwasa, and
was restored by the English so late as 1867. It covers an area of over
three thousand acres, and is of inestimable value to the agricultural
interests of the district. It seems that as Egyptian monarchs were
wont to build pyramids to mark the glory of their several dynasties,
so the Kandian kings and earlier rulers of Ceylon each sought to excel
his predecessor by constructing larger tanks, thus elaborating the
means of irrigation and increasing the productiveness of the island.
Sixteen of these useful reservoirs are credited to one of the latest
kings of Kandy.

Could this grand and effective principle of irrigation be applied to
the plains of Australia, what a blessing it might prove. The
oft-recurring periods of drought, extending from Brisbane in the north
to Adelaide in the south, are now a fatal blight to agricultural
enterprise. The Murray River, which at certain seasons of the year is
navigable for nearly or quite one thousand miles, now runs to waste,
becoming a mere brook half the year; and sheep and cattle sometimes
die of thirst by thousands, so that many wealthy Englishmen engaged in
sheep-raising have been made paupers in a single season. It only
needs the construction of a series of water-saving tanks upon the
course of the Murray to successfully water millions of acres of
naturally fertile soil, and to insure the country against anything
like a water famine when the dry season sets in. Why the people who
are in authority ignore such simple facts is a standing marvel.

We have said that rice was the staple product of the island, and it is
still so; but it was not long ago that Ceylon was also famous for the
amount of excellent coffee which it produced and exported. For a
while, it seemed destined to rival all the rest of the world in this
important article. Its cultivation was begun here upon a large scale
in 1825, in the vicinity of Peradenia, where the soil and climate
proved to be so favorable that speculators came hither in large
numbers from great distances, but especially from England, to
establish plantations, though the coffee-tree is not indigenous to
Ceylon. Thousands of acres of fore