CEYLON AND ITS ADMINISTRATION.

Vegetation. The soil of Ceylon is not rich, but the
vegetation is most luxuriant, especially in the moist zone.
The chief vegetable products
 are cocoanuts, rice,
tea, cinnamon, cacao,
cardamoms, tobacco,and
rubber, and among valuable
 timbersebony,satinwood,
 and calamander.
Mineral Products.—
Among precious stones
the sapphire, ruby, cat’seye,
 aquamarine, chrysoberyl,cinnamon
 stone,
topaz, garnet, and moonstone
 are plentiful in
Ceylon, while the pearl
fishery of the Gulf of
Mannar yields at irregular
 intervals a large
income to Government.
Salt yielded by the
evaporation of sea water
in the Southern, North-Western,
 Northern, and
Eastern Provinces is a valuable Government monopoly.
Plumbago, or graphite, which is used for making crucibles
and lead pencils, is an article of considerable export, especially
to the United States.
Animals.—Ceylon is famous for iis elephants, of which a
considerable number remain in the wild state and under
careful protection. The other large wild animals which
inhabit the jungles of the Island are the bear, the leopard,
four species of deer. the buffalo, and the wild boar.

Language and Religions.

The great bulk of the population is, as will be seen,
Sinhalese, a people peculiar to Ceylon. The large majority
of them are Buddhists : the rest are Christians, mostly Roman
Catholics.
According to tradition, both Indian and local, the Sinhalese
are of Aryan race and connected with the north of India; and
this is borne out by language, customs, and subsequent
history. Theancient North Indian poem Rdmdyana (dating
from 500 B.C. at least) and the inscriptions of Asoka (250
B.C.) prove early intercourse between North India and Ceylon.