ASSAM, BURMA, AND CEYLON 191

north-east monsoon is much modified by local atmospheric
conditions, and thus it frequently happens that Colombo
and west-coast stations are rained upon for many months
in the year, lasting through the autumn to the middle of
December. A study of the rain chart of Ceylon should
be a preliminary to any attempt at permanent settlement
in the country.
The island contains a total area of 25,300 square
miles, and about 3,500,000 inhabitants. Of these latter
2,200,000 are Singhalese, 1,000,000 are Tamils, and about
6500 are pure-bred Europeans. Portuguese colonisation
commenced on the island in 15085, with a factory built at
Colombo. A century later the Dutch landed on the east
coast, and in fifty years had dispossessed the Portuguese.
About two centuries later again (1796) the Dutch were
expelled by the English, and the maritime provinces of
Ceylon were attached to the Madras Presidency for a year
or two, after which Ceylon became a Crown colony.
Ceylon now possesses a government of its own, including
a governor, a commander-in-chief, and an executive
council of five members, with an elaborate system of
administration. It is about one-fifth the size of an
average province of British India, being equal in land
area to about six official districts. For purposes of
administration the island is divided into five ¢ provinces”
presided over by Government agents.
The attractions of Ceylon to the traveller lie chiefly in
its unrivalled scenery. “It is impossible to exaggerate the
Heauty of Ceylon,” says Sir Edwin Arnold. ¢ Belted with
a double girdle of golden sands and waving palm groves,
the interior is one vast green garden of nature, deliciously
disposed into plain and highland, valley and peak, where
almost everything grows known to the tropical world,
ander a sky glowing with an equatorial sun, yet tempered
 by the cool sea winds. Colombo itself, outside the
actual town, is a perfect labyrinth of shady bowers and
flowing streams and lakes. For miles and miles you drive
about under arbors of feathery bamboos, broad-leaved
sreadfruit-trees, talipot and areca palms, cocoa-nut groves,