harmony between the primitive simplicity of these people and
that of surrounding nature. To the casual observer, as he passes over
this route between Colombo and Kandy, there is an unpleasant
suggestion in the surroundings of possible jungle fever. The thick,
low-lying, tangled woods and stagnant pools one would think must be
the very home of chills and fever. They would be so considered in
continental India, or in the south and west of our own country; yet
the people hereabouts do not seem at present to suffer from any
special form of ill health. The men are thin in flesh, but muscular
and cheerful in aspect. They really seem to enjoy life after their
dull, animal-like fashion, though their principal occupation is that
of working in the wet rice-fields, an employment which no European can
safely pursue. The latter, in fact, never become sufficiently
acclimated to be able to live in low and swampy districts in Ceylon
without contracting malaria, the effects of which last through a
lifetime.

When this railway was being built, the coolies employed in the work
died by hundreds from the unwholesome character of the neighborhood,
until the rule was adopted of returning the laborers after the day's
work to Colombo to sleep, bringing them back again after sunrise. It
is the damp night air which prevails in the lowlands, and its
attendant miasma, which proves so fatal. One after another of the
European overseers and engineers sickened, and were compelled to
return home to England before a restoration to health was effected;
while some, apparently the most hardy, and who took the best of care
of themselves, succumbed altogether, and were buried in the island far
from their native land. Better drainage and cleared jungles have
greatly improved the sanitary conditions. The dense forest has been
opened to the influence of purifying breezes and the effect of the
genial sunshine, so that there is much less chance for the pestilence
to find a breeding-place.

Banana groves, with the trees bending under the weight of the rich,
finger-shaped fruit; tall cocoanut-trees, the tops heavy with the
nutritious food they bear; stout tamarinds and juicy mangoes;
ant-hills, looking like young volcanoes, half as high as native huts;
rippling cascades; sharp declivities; glistening pools; white cranes;
tall pink flamingoes, standing like sentinels on the muddy banks; an
occasional monkey leaping among the trees; golden orioles,
gaudy-feathered