which had been
built, private enterprise had lain dormant. As usual, from January to
May, Newera Ellia was overcrowded with months of visitors, and nearly
empty during the other months of the year.

All Ceylon people dread the wet season at Newera Ellia, which continues
from June to December.

I myself prefer it to what is termed the dry season, at which time the
country is burnt up by drought. There is never more rain at Newera
Ellia than vegetation requires, and not one-fourth the quantity fills
at this elevation, compared to that of the low country. It may be more
continuous, but it is of a lighter character, and more akin to "Scotch
mist." The clear days during the wet season are far more lovely than
the constant glare of the summer months, and the rays of the sun are
not so powerful.

There cannot be a more beautiful sight than the view of sunrise from
the summit of Pedrotallagalla, the highest mountain in Ceylon, which,
rising to the height of 8300 feet, looks down upon Newera Ellia, some
two thousand feet below upon one side, and upon the interminable depths
of countless ravines and valleys at its base.

There is a feeling approaching the sublime when a solitary man thus
stands upon the highest point of earth, before the dawn of day, and
waits the first rising of the sun. Nothing above him but the dusky
arch of heaven. Nothing on his level but empty space,--all beneath,
deep beneath his feet. From childhood he has looked to heaven as the
dwelling of the Almighty, and he now stands upon that lofty summit in
the silence of utter solitude; his hand, as he raises it above his
head, the highest mark upon the sea-girt land; his form above all
mortals upon this land, the nearest to his God. Words, till now
unthought of, tingle in his ears: "He went up into a mountain apart to
pray." He feels the spirit which prompted the choice of such a lonely
spot, and he stands instinctively uncovered, as the first ray of light
spreads like a thread of fire across the sky.

And now the distant hill-tops, far below, struggle through the snowy
sheet of mist, like islands in a fairy sea; and far, how far his eye
can scan, where the faint line upon the horizon marks the ocean!
Mountain and valley, hill and plain, with boundless forest, stretch
beneath his feet, far as his sight can gaze, and the scene, so solemnly
beautiful, gradually wakens to his senses; the birds begin to chirp;
the dew-drops fall heavily from the trees