so late as 1852, the rich districts of Neuera-kalawa and the Wanny, in which there are innumerable villages (and scarcely a hill), are marked as “unknown mountainous region.”  General Fraser, after the devotion of a lifetime to the labour, has produced a survey which, in extent and minuteness of detail, stands unrivalled.  In this great work he had the co-operation of Major Skinner and of Captain Gallwey, and to these two gentlemen the public are indebted for the greater portion of the field-work and the trigonometrical operations.  To judge of the difficulties which beset such an undertaking, it must be borne in mind that till very recently travelling in the interior of Ceylon was all but impracticable, in a country unopened even by bridle roads, across unbridged rivers, over mountains never trod by the foot of a European, and amidst precipices inaccessible to all 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