alarial districts, all sorts of insects, reptiles, and wild animals
thrive and multiply abundantly, but to man, and even to most domestic
animals, such regions are poisonous.

The reason why the river-courses in Ceylon are so unsalubrious, so
fever-inducing, is easily explained. These waterways overflow their
banks in the rainy season, depositing an accumulation of vegetable
matter which remains to decompose when the river subsides, thus
infecting the surrounding country. The banks of swiftly flowing
streams are considered to be healthful localities, but they do not
prove so in this tropical island. The Maha-velle-Ganga, which is the
Mississippi of Ceylon, is no exception to this rule.

In coming to Kandy from Colombo, the railway for the first forty miles
threads its way through a thinly populated region, over a level
country which is often so low as to be of a marshy nature, though the
soil is marked by overwhelming fertility. About fifteen miles from the
capital is Henaratgoda, where the government Tropical Gardens are
situated. Here the process of acclimatization for exotics is tried
with plants which might not thrive at the altitude of the Botanical
Gardens of Peradenia, near Kandy. The railway stations, it will be
observed, are all beautifully ornamented with tropical flowers adapted
to the situation. This is getting to be a universal custom all over
the world. Even in Russia, on the line between St. Petersburg and
Moscow, every depot is thus beautified. The railways are a government
monopoly in this island, furnishing a handsome revenue. There are no
presidents to swallow up salaries of fifty thousand dollars each, nor
other ornamental officials receiving enormous sums of money for
imaginary services. At each station in Ceylon, pretty children of both
sexes offer the traveler tempting native fruits. They are very
interesting, these children, in spite of their unkempt hair and entire
nudity. Their big black eyes are full of pleading earnestness and
bright expression, while their dark brown skin shines like polished
mahogany under the hot rays of an equatorial sun. The land seen on the
route is interspersed by rice plantations, groves of palms, bananas,
and plantains, while the jungle at intervals is seen to be impassable,
the trees are so bound together with stout, creeping vines and close
undergrowth. Hump-backed cows and black swine, with an occasional
domesticated buffalo, are all the animals one sees, though