sedative combined. The Ceylon and
Malacca men eagerly substitute tobacco when it is to be had, and
sometimes mix it with the betelnut. No gift to the savages of the
Magellan Strait is so acceptable or so eagerly sought for as tobacco.
The natives of Terra del Fuego, half-starved and almost wholly naked
in a frigid clime, will exchange anything they have for a few dried
plugs of this seductive weed. If you meet a North American Indian in
the wilds of the far West, the first thing he asks of you, with
extended hand, is "toback." The Japanese imbibes the subtle stimulus
of tea in excessive quantities; the people of the equatorial regions
get tipsy on palm toddy; the Chinese make a bedeviling liquor from
distilled rice; the Mexican gets his intoxicating pulque from the
agave plant; grapes yield the fiery brandy used by French and English
people; hops and malt stupefy the Germans; while corn and rye whiskey
turn men into brutes in this country.

Immediately inland from Point de Galle, the surface of the ground
rests upon a stratum of decomposed coral, and collections of
sea-shells are found buried in agglutinated sand in situations raised
far above the level of the sea, corroborating the supposition that
Ceylon has been gradually rising above the ocean for many ages. The
soil hereabouts is of a deep red hue, caused by the admixture of iron,
and, being largely composed of lime from the comminuted coral, it is
extremely fertile, producing certain crops of great luxuriance,
yielding sometimes two and even three harvests annually. At Belligam,
a short distance eastward from Galle, there is a large detached rock,
two thirds of which is composed of the gem known as cinnamon stone. It
is carried away in pieces of considerable size for the purpose of
extracting and polishing it for ornamental uses. The author has seen,
near Fort Wrangell, Alaska, a similar conglomerate of garnets, an
interesting evidence of the erratic freaks of nature. The cinnamon
stone is a crystal of a rich yellowish-brown tint, but little prized
in Ceylon. As soon as such stones are found in large quantities they
drop in market price; it is rarity which makes their value. When
moonstones were first brought to the notice of Europeans, they were
nearly as expensive as opals; now, they are sold by the pound or the
hundred, for a few shillings the lot. Were all the diamonds to be put
upon the market which are hoarded by certain large European dealers,
those precio