Eight Years Wanderings in Ceylon | Page 4

Ceylon Bears - Variety of Vermin - Trials for
Hounds - Hounds and their Masters - A Sportsman "shut up"- A
Corporal and Centipede.
CHAPTER VIII.
Observations on Nature in the Tropics - The Dung Beetle - The
Mason-fly - Spiders - Luminous Insects - Efforts of a Naturalist - Dogs
Worried by Leeches - Tropical Diseases - Malaria - Causes of Infection
- Disappearance of the "Mina" - Poisonous Water - Well-digging
Elephants.
CHAPTER IX.
Instinct and Reason - Tailor Birds and Grosbeaks - The White Ant -
Black Ants at War - Wanderoo Monkeys - Habits of Elephants -
Elephants in the Lake - Herd of Elephants Bathing - Elephant-shooting
- The Rencontre - The Charge - Caught by the Tail - Horse Gored by a
Buffalo - Sagacity of Dogs - "Bluebeard" - His Hunt - A True Hound.
CHAPTER X.
Wild Fruits - Ingredients for a "Soupe Maigre" - Orchidaceous Plants -
Wild Nutmegs - Native Oils - Cinnamon - Primeval Forests - Valuable
Woods - The Mahawelli River - Variety of Palms - Cocoa-nut Toddy -
Arrack - Cocoa-nut Oil - Cocoa-nut-planting - The Talipot Palm - The
Areca Palm - Betel Chewing - Sago Nuts - Varicty of Bees - Waste of
Beeswax - Edible Fungi - Narcotic Puff-ball - Intoxicating Drugs -
Poisoned Cakes - The "Sack Tree" - No Gum Trees of Value in Ceylon.
CHAPTER XI.

Indigenous Productions - Botanical Gardens - Suggested Experiments -
Lack of Encouragement to Gold-diggers - Prospects of Gold-digging -
We want "Nuggets" - Who is to Blame? - Governor's Salary - Fallacies
of a Five Years' Reign - Neglected Education of the People -
Responsibilities of Conquest - Progress of Christianity.
CHAPTER XII.
The Pearl Fishery - Desolation of the Coast - Harbor of Trincomalee -
Fatal Attack by a Shark - Ferocious Crocodiles - Salt Monopoly - Salt
Lakes - Method of Collection - Neglect of Ceylon Hides - Fish and
Fishing - Primitive Tackle - Oysters and Penknives - A Night Bivouac
for a Novice - No Dinner, but a Good Fire - Wild Yams and
Consequences -The Elephants' Duel - A Hunting Hermitage -
Bluebeard's last Hunt - The Leopard - Bluebeard's Death - Leopard
Shot.
CHAPTER XIII.
Wild Denizens of Forest and Lake - Destroyers of Reptiles - The Tree
Duck - The Mysteries of Night in the Forest - The Devil-Bird - The
Iguanodon in Miniature - Outrigger Canoes - The Last Glimpse of
Ceylon - A Glance at Old Times.

EIGHT YEARS' WANDERINGS
CHAPTER I.
Colombo - Dullness of the Town - Cinnamon Garden - A Cingalese
Appo - Ceylon Sport - Jungle Fever - Newera Ellia - Energy of Sir E.
Barnes - Influence of the Governor - Projected Improvements.
It was in the year 1845 that the spirit of wandering allured me toward
Ceylon: little did I imagine at that time that I should eventually become
a settler.

The descriptions of its sports, and the tales of hairbreadth escapes from
elephants, which I had read in various publications, were sources of
attraction against which I strove in vain; and I at length determined
upon the very wild idea of spending twelve months in Ceylon jungles.
It is said that the delights of pleasures in anticipation exceed the
pleasures themselves: in this case doubtless some months of great
enjoyment passed in making plans of every description, until I at length
arrived in Colombo, Ceylon's seaport capital.
I never experienced greater disappointment in an expectation than on
my first view of Colombo. I had spent some time at Mauritius and
Bourbon previous to my arrival, and I soon perceived that the
far-famed Ceylon was nearly a century behind either of those small
islands.
Instead of the bustling activity of the Port Louis harbor in Mauritius,
there were a few vessels rolling about in the roadstead, and some forty
or fifty fishing canoes hauled up on the sandy beach. There was a
peculiar dullness throughout the town - a sort of something which
seemed to say, "Coffee does not pay." There was a want of spirit in
everything. The ill-conditioned guns upon the fort looked as though not
intended to defend it; the sentinels looked parboiled; the very natives
sauntered rather than walked; the very bullocks crawled along in the
midday sun, listlessly dragging the native carts. Everything and
everybody seemed enervated, except those frightfully active people in
all countries and climates, "the custom-house officers:" these necessary
plagues to society gave their usual amount of annoyance.
What struck me the most forcibly in Colombo was the want of shops.
In Port Louis the wide and well-paved streets were lined with excellent
"magasins" of every description; here, on the contrary, it was difficult
to find anything in the shape of a shop