The Bottom Was Formed Of The Trunk Of An Extremely Narrow Tree, Slightly Hollowed Out, And The Sides Of The Planks Are Kept In Their Places By Side And Cross Supports.

These craft rose hardly a foot and a half out of the water, and their greatest breadth did not average quite a foot.

There was a small piece of plank laid across as a seat, but the rower was obliged to cross his knees from want of room to sit with them apart.

The road, as I before mentioned, lay for the most part through forests of cocoa-trees, where the soil was very sandy and completely free from creepers and underwood; but near trees that did not bear fruit, the soil was rich, and both that and the trees covered with creepers in wild luxuriance. There were very few orchids.

We crossed four rivers, the Tindurch, Bentock, Cattura, and Pandura, two by means of boats, two by handsome wooden bridges.

The cinnamon plantations commenced about ten miles from Colombo; and on this side of the town are all the country-houses of the Europeans. They are very simple, shaded with cocoa-trees and surrounded with stone walls. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, we drove over two draw-bridges and through two fortified gateways into the town, which is far more pleasantly situated than Pointe de Galle, on account of its nearer proximity to the beautiful mountain ranges.

I only stopped a night here, and on the following morning again resumed my journey in the mail to the town of Candy, which is distant seventy-two miles.

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