Arabian Nights, and appropriately called the "Pearl
of India" by the English, who are its present masters, is separated
from the southern extremity of the continent by the Gulf of Manaar.
Were it not that a shallow watercourse of about fifty miles in width
intervenes, the island would be a peninsula. As it is, a barrier to
navigation known as Adam's Bridge, consisting of several ledges of
parallel rocks, nearly forms a connection with the mainland. Aided by
coral growth and the sand deposit of the ceaseless current setting
into the Strait of Manaar from the long reach of the Coromandel coast,
this may in the course of time be consummated. The tendency is
certainly in that direction, notwithstanding a system of dredging
which has been adopted by the English government, enabling vessels
which do not draw over ten feet of water to pass through the strait,
and thus avoid the necessity of doubling the island at its southern
extremity. Ceylon,--the Serendib of the Arabs,--is the gem of the
Indian Ocean, an intimate acquaintance with which fully sustains the
delightful promise it suggests to the stranger who beholds it for the
first time as he approaches the low-lying, palm-lined shore. Indeed,
it might appropriately be called the Isle of Palms, so interminable is
the array of cocoanut-trees which fringe the beach.

Judging solely from its present appearance and its geographical
position, it would seem to have been a portion of the mainland at some
former period, though there are many able writers who do not accept
this idea, reminding us that animals, birds, insects, and reptiles
which are quite unknown on the continent of India exist in this
island. There are no hyenas, tigers, wolves, or foxes here, though
there are plenty of these creatures just across the Strait of Manaar.
As an argument this is not of so much importance, however, as might at
first appear, since there are so many well-known instances of a like
character. The dissimilitude of Sumatra and Java, separated by only a
narrow channel, occurs to us, as well as that of Madagascar, but
narrowly divided from the neighboring continent. So able a writer on
physical geography as Sir J. E. Tennent believes that Ceylon is not a
dismembered portion of India, but a distinct formation, perhaps part
of a continent which has long since disappeared. In this suggestive
opinion Professor Owen also agrees with him.

The Maldive Islands, situated five hundred miles west of Ceylo