If The Native Takes This
Trouble For So Small A Recompense, There Is Every Reason To
Suppose That The Hides Now Wasted Would Be Brought Into Market
And Form A Valuable Export, Were Salt At Such A Rate As Would
Admit Of Their Preparation.
The whole of the southern coast, especially in the neighborhood
of the salt lakes, abounds with fish.
These are at present nearly
undisturbed; but I have little doubt that a reduction in the
price of salt would soon call forth the energies of the Moormen,
who would establish fisheries in the immediate neighborhood. This
would be of great importance to the interior of the country, as a
road has been made within the last few years direct from this
locality to Badulla, distant about eighty miles, and situated in
the very heart of the most populous district of Ceylon. This
road, which forms a direct line of communication from the port of
Hambantotte to Newera Ellia, is now much used for the transport
of coffee from the Badulla estates, to which a cheap supply of
salt and fish would he a great desideratum.
The native is a clever fellow at fishing. Every little boy of
ten years old along the coast is an adept in throwing the casting
net; and I have often watched with amusement the scientific
manner in which some of these little fellows handle a fine fish
on a single line; Isaak Walton would have been proud of such
pupils.
There is nothing like necessity for sharpening a man's intellect,
and the natives of the coast being a class of ichthyophagi, it
may be imagined that they excel in all the methods of capturing
their favorite food.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 301 of 334
Words from 80585 to 80868
of 89475
