onally tempt the larger cetacea into the Gulf of Manaar. In the
calmer months of the year, when the sea is glassy, and for hours
together undisturbed by a ripple, the minute descriptions are rendered
perceptible by their beautiful prismatic tinting. So great is their
transparency that they are only to be distinguished from the water by
the return of the reflected light that glances from their delicate and
polished surfaces. Less frequently they are traced by the faint hues of
their tiny peduncles, arms, or tentaculae; and it has been well observed
that they often give the seas in which they abound the appearance of
being crowded with flakes of half-melted snow. The larger kinds, when
undisturbed in their native haunts, attain to considerable size. A
faintly blue medusa, nearly a foot across, may be seen in the Gulf of
Manaar, where, no doubt, others of still larger growth are to be found.

[Footnote 1: Jellyfish.]

The remaining orders, including the corals, madrepores, and other
polypi, have yet to find a naturalist to undertake their investigation,
but in all probability the species are not very numerous.

CHAP. VI

INSECTS.

Owing to the combination of heat, moisture, and vegetation, the myriads
of insects in Ceylon form one of the characteristic features of the
island. In the solitude of the forests there is a perpetual music from
their soothing and melodious hum, which frequently swells to a startling
sound as the cicada trills his sonorous drum on the sunny bark of some
tall tree. At morning the dew hangs in diamond drops on the threads and
gossamer which the spiders suspend across every pathway; and above the
pool dragon flies, of more than metallic lustre, flash in the early
sunbeams. The earth teems with countless ants, which emerge from beneath
its surface, or make their devious highways to ascend to their nests in
the trees. Lustrous beetles, with their golden elytra, bask on the
leaves, whilst minuter species dash through the air in circles, which
the ear can follow by the booming of their tiny wings. Butterflies of
large size and gorgeous colouring flutter over the endless expanse of
flowers, and frequently the extraordinary sight presents itself of
flights of these delicate creatures, generally of a white or pale yellow
hue, apparently miles in breadth, and of such prodigious extension as to
occupy hours, and even days, uninterruptedly in their passage--whence
coming no one knows; wither going