CLIMATE: HARBOURS.

4

great plain from sea to sea. To the south-east and north the
hills break off abruptly, but on the west and south-west the
country between the mountains and the sea is hilly and
undulating. Across the central plateau, from north to south,
runs a dividing range of mountains, whose highest peak,
Pidurutalagala, reaches an altitude of 8,296 feet. Rising to a
lesser height, 7,353 feet, is the world-famed Adam’s Peak, on
the summit of which is the footprint revered alike by
Buddhists, who claim it as impressed by the founder of
their religion, and whose monks are its custodians, and by
Mohammedans, who claim it as the footprint of the father
of the human race whose name attaches to this sacred
eminence.
The climate is, on the whole, healthy for a purely tropical
country. The mean annual temperature at Colombo is about
81° F.; at Kandy, at an elevation of 1,600 feet, it is about
76° F. ; and at Nuwara Eliya, the sanitarium of the Island, at
6,188 feet, it is 58° F., the thermometer falling at night in the
cold season to freezing point. The birth-rate per 1,000 is
39-1, and the death-rate per 1,000, 27-5 for the whole Island.
The mean annual rainfall varies from 30 or 40 inches in
the north-west and south-east to 200 inches in the interior,
being controlled to a great degree by the dividing range of
mountains alluded to above. There are, roughly speaking,
two seasons, the souih-west monsoon and the north-east
monsoon. During the former the rainfall is mainly confined
to the south-west part of the Island, while the north-east
rains are more equally distributed.
None of the rivers of Ceylon are navigable by ships, and
only a few by boats, and these for but a short distance. The
largest river, the Mahaweli-ganga, rises in the heart of the
mountains, and after a course of 190 miles finds its way to
the sea near Trincomalee. The next longest streams are the
Kelani-ganga, which enters the sea at Colombo, and the
Kalu-ganga and Gindura rivers, the mouths of which are at
Kalutara and Galle respectively.
Harbours.—There are only three real harbours on the
coast. The Trincomalee harbour, which is unfortunately
Situated on the less accessible eastern side of the Island, is
2 magnificent land-locked harbour which the Fast India
Squadron makes its headquarters, The harbour at Galle, for
S0 many years the well-known port of call for all vessels
plying from England to India, Australia, and the Far East
under the name of “ Point-de-Galle,” is dangerous, and has
for some years past yielded the pride of place to Colombe,
which possesses an excellent, safe, and capacious artificial
harbour,