but the most
courageous and prudent. Add to this that the country is densely covered
with forest and jungle, with trees a hundred feet high, from which here
and there the branches had to be cleared to obtain a sight of the signal
stations. The triangulation was carried on amidst privations,
discomfort, and pestilence, which frequently prostrated the whole party,
and forced their attendants to desert them rather than encounter such
hardships and peril. The materials collected by the colleagues of
General Fraser under these discouragements have been worked up by him
with consummate skill and perseverance. The base line, five and a
quarter miles in length, was measured in 1845 in the cinnamon plantation
at Kaderani, to the north of Colombo, and its extremities are still
marked by two towers, which it was necessary to raise to the height of
one hundred feet, to enable them to be discerned above the surrounding
forests. These it is to be hoped will be carefully kept from decay, as
they may again be called into requisition.

As regards the sea line of Ceylon, an admirable chart of the West coast,
from Adam's Bridge to Dondera Head, has been published by the East India
Company from a survey in 1845. But information is sadly wanted as to the
East and North, of which no accurate charts exist, except of a few
unconnected points, such as the harbour of Trincomalie.]

_General Form_.--In its general outline the island resembles a pear--and
suggests to its admiring inhabitants the figure of those pearls which
from their elongated form are suspended from the tapering end. When
originally upheaved above the ocean its shape was in all probability
nearly circular, with a prolongation in the direction of north-east. The
mountain zone in the south, covering an area of about 4212 miles[1], may
then have formed the largest proportion of its entire area--and the belt
of low lands, known as the Maritime Provinces, consists to a great
extent of soil from the disintegration of the gneiss, detritus from the
hills, alluvium carried down the rivers, and marine deposits gradually
collected on the shore. But in addition to these, the land has for ages
been slowly rising from the sea, and terraces abounding in marine shells
imbedded in agglutinated sand occur in situations far above high-water
mark. Immediately inland from Point de Galle, the surface soil rests on
a stratum of decomposing coral; and sea shells are found at a
considerable distance fr