ichest dress,
and all around a verdure of the freshest green, telling me I was in a
tropical land, and in a land where heat and moisture by their abundance
gave extraordinary force to vegetation. As I travelled from Kandy to
Newera Ellia, and back again to Kandy by a different route, my
impression of the picturesqueness and productiveness of the country was
confirmed. There was one thing I did not see--the blooming heather of my
own Highlands.

There is, I suppose, no country where all that is desirable can be
obtained. It must be acknowledged Ceylon has its disadvantages. Its
climate is that of perpetual summer, warmer indeed at some times than at
others, but never approaching our heat in Northern India in May and
June. It is only six degrees from the equator, and it owes its moderate
temperature to its sea breezes and abundant rain. I missed the bracing
coolness of Northern India in December and January. Perpetual summer is
good for neither soul nor body. For bodily health and enjoyment the
alternation of cold and heat is far better, as in the moral world
prosperity and adversity are required for the maturing of character.

There is one evil--I do not know whether I should call it a minor or a
major evil--to which both man and beast are exposed in Ceylon. We have
all heard of snakes in the grass. In the fine grass of Ceylon leeches
abound, and are ever ready to take their unwelcome contribution from all
that come their way. They leap up on passers by, and try to exact from
them their favourite food. I was often reminded by unpleasant nips that
they had got hold of me. For months after leaving Ceylon I had on my
limbs marks of their doings.

[Sidenote: PRODUCTS OF CEYLON.]

When travelling between Kandy and Newera Ellia, I was the guest of
coffee-planters, all of them, so far as I remember, my own countrymen;
and saw coffee in all its stages, from the berry on the coffee-bush on
to the manufactured article ready for the market. The plant is
indigenous in the island, but it was turned to little account till taken
up by Europeans. The pioneers in its culture, as so often happens in
such cases, are said to have lost heavily; but at the time of my visit
plantations were paying well, and a large tract of land was under
cultivation. I believe it afterwards ceased to be profitable, and now
tea cultivation is taking its place.

At one time cinnamon was the most valuable export of the island, but by
1858 it had so decreas