ted tank.

[Footnote 1: Nettapus coromandelianus, _Gm_.]

[Footnote 2: Larus brunnicephalus, _Jerd_.]

[Footnote 3: Dafila acuta, _Linn._]

[Footnote 4: Querquedula creeca, _Linn._]

[Footnote 5: Fuligula rufina, _Pallas_.]

[Footnote 6: Spatula clypeata, _Linn._]

[Footnote 7: Sterna minuta, _Linn._]

[Footnote 8: Pelicanus Philippensis, _Gmel_.]

I chanced upon one occasion to come unexpectedly upon one of these
remarkable breeding places during a visit which I made to the great tank
of Padivil, one of those gigantic constructions by which the early kings
of Ceylon have left imperishable records of their reigns.

It is situated in the depth of the forests to the north-west of
Trincomalie; and the tank is itself the basin of a broad and shallow
valley, enclosed between two lines of low hills, that gradually sink
into the plain as they approach towards the sea. The extreme breadth of
the included space may be twelve or fourteen miles, narrowing to eleven
at the spot where the retaining bund has been constructed across the
valley; and when this enormous embankment was in effectual repair, and
the reservoir filled by the rains, the water must have been thrown back
along the basin of the valley for at least fifteen miles. It is
difficult now to determine the precise distances, as the overgrowth of
wood and jungle has obliterated all lines left by the original level of
the lake at its junction with the forest. Even when we rode along it,
the centre of the tank was deeply submerged, so that notwithstanding the
partial escape, the water still covered an area of ten miles in
diameter. Even now its depth when full must be very considerable, for
high on the branches of the trees that grow in the area, the last flood
had left quantities of driftwood and withered grass; and the rocks and
banks were coated with the yeasty foam, that remains after the
subsidence of an agitated flood.

The bed of the tank was difficult to ride over, being still soft and
treacherous, although covered everywhere with tall and waving grass; and
in every direction it was poched into deep holes by the innumerable
elephants that had congregated to roll in the soft mud, to bathe in the
collected water, or to luxuriate in the rich herbage, under the cool
shade of the trees. The ground, too, was thrown up into hummocks like
great molehills which, the natives told us, were formed by a huge
earthworm, common in Ceylon, nearly two feet in length, an