Nights,' under the name of Serendib.

"The mountains are near the southern part, and the highest one is Mount
Pedrotallagalla,--don't forget the name, my young friends,--eight thousand
two hundred and sixty feet high. In your visit to Ceylon you will go to
Candy, which will please those with a sweet tooth better than Kandy, as it
is often spelled. Many precious stones are found in Ceylon; and the pearl
fishery is a very important source of wealth, though its value is variable
in different years. In six years only out of the last thirty have the
fisheries been productive, and in the other twenty-four they yielded hardly
anything. In those six years, the largest yield, in 1881, was not quite
sixty thousand pounds, while the smallest noted was ten thousand pounds.

"The fisheries are under government regulation. An official announces when
the work is permitted, and then it lasts only from four to six weeks.
Thirteen men and ten divers are generally the crew of each boat, five of
the latter going down into the water while the other five rest. Each diver
has a stone, weighing forty pounds, attached to a line long enough to reach
the bottom, with a loop near the weight, into which he puts his foot. The
water varies in depth from fifty-four to seventy-eight feet. They work
quickly; for a minute is the usual time they remain in the water, though
some can stand it twenty seconds longer.

"One would suppose that the sharks, which abound in these waters, would
make it dangerous business; but very few accidents occur, for the commotion
about the boats seems to scare them away. When the diver gives the signal
he is hauled up, with his bag of oysters, as rapidly as possible. But the
ladies know more about pearls than I do, and I will say no more about them.

"There are many rivers in Ceylon, rising in the high land, and flowing into
the sea; but none of them are as long as the Mississippi. The climate of
the island is simply magnificent; the average heat in Colombo on the high
lands never exceeds 70 deg.. I shall permit you to describe the flowers after
you have seen them; but the vegetation generally of the island is
exceedingly luxuriant. In regard to animals, the tiger does not reside in
Ceylon. The elephant, generally without any tusks, is the chief ruler in
the forests here. The bear and the leopard are found. There is no end of
monkeys. There are sixteen kinds of bats here, and all your base-ball clubs
could be supplied from t