dded to and strengthened by the Dutch, and latterly still
further improved by the English. There is plenty of wild game in this
region, including the huge elephant, though this animal is more
numerous in the central provinces and at the north. Here one has a
chance, upon a still night, of hearing the vocal performance of the
singing fishes, and also of witnessing the native sport of shooting
fish. The Tamils go out in boats just offshore, carrying lighted
torches, the fire of which attracts the curiosity of the fishes,
bringing them to the surface, when the boatmen shoot them with bows
and short arrows. To the latter a thin, light string is attached, by
which the fishes are promptly secured. From here the packet boat goes
north to Trincomalee, already described, thence to Point Pedro, the
extreme northern part of Ceylon,--Punta das Pedras, the "rocky cape."
We have said that this is the extreme northern point of Ceylon, but
let us qualify the remark. Though it is generally so considered, Point
Palmyra, a promontory situated a few miles to the westward, is really
still farther north. The humble Tamil women of this district are fine
upright figures in their simple costume, which consists of a long fold
of cotton cloth enveloping the body below the waist and thrown
carelessly over the left shoulder, leaving the right arm and bust
free. Women who from girlhood always carry burdens upon their heads
never fail to have an upright and stately carriage. As before
intimated, the Tamil women are far handsomer in features than the
Singhalese race. The Jaffna peninsula has been peopled by the Tamil
race for two thousand years or more.

Point Pedro is a small town, and the harbor does not deserve the name,
being only an open roadstead sheltered by a coral reef, where a number
of vessels of moderate size are nearly always to be seen. Its commerce
is limited to the export of tobacco, cocoanut oil, and cabinet woods.
The trade is almost entirely with continental India, from whence rice
is largely imported. Some cattle, sheep, and elephants are also
shipped from here to southern India, the government realizing a
royalty upon each of the last-named animals exported.

Jaffna is over two hundred miles from Colombo by land, and is peopled
mostly by Tamils, who have a record connected with their settlement
here reaching back for many centuries. The population of the entire
peninsula is recorded as being about two hundred thousand, to meet
w