r millions of
inhabitants derived their food, their wealth and their very life.

The remains of these cities sufficiently attest the former amount of
population and the comparative civilization which existed at that
remote era among the progenitors of the present degraded race of
barbarians. The ruins of "Anaradupoora," which cover two hundred and
fifty-six square miles of ground, are all that remain of the noble city
which stood within its walls in a square of sixteen miles. Some idea
of the amount of population may be arrived at, when we consider the
present density of inhabitants in all Indian houses and towns. Millions
must, therefore, have streamed from the gates of a city to which our
modern London was comparatively a village.

There is a degree of sameness in the ruins of all the ancient cities of
Ceylon which renders a description tedious. Those of "Anaradupoora" are
the largest in extent, and the buildings appear to have been more
lofty, the great dagoba having exceeded four hundred feet in height;
but the ruins do not exhibit the same "finish" in the style of
architecture which is seen in the remains of other towns.

Among these, "Topare," anciently called "Pollanarua," stands foremost.
This city appears to have been laid out with a degree of taste which
would have done credit to our modern towns.

Before its principal gate stretched a beautiful lake of about fifteen
miles circumference (now only nine). The approach to this gate was by a
broad road, upon the top of a stone causeway, of between two and three
miles in length, which formed a massive dam to the waters of the lake
which washed its base. To the right of this dam stretched many miles
of cultivation; to the left, on the farther shores of the lake, lay
park-like grass-lands, studded with forest trees, some of whose mighty
descendants still exist in the noble "tamarind," rising above all
others. Let us return in imagination to Pollanarua as it once stood.
Having arrived upon the causeway in the approach to the city, the scene
must have been beautiful in the extreme: the silvery lake, like a broad
mirror, in the midst of a tropical park; the flowering trees shadowing
its waters; the groves of tamarinds sheltering its many nooks and bays;
the gorgeous blossoms of the pink lotus resting on its glassy surface;
and the carpet-like glades of verdant pasturage, stretching far away
upon the opposite shores, covered with countless elephants, tamed to
comp