14 CEYLON AND ITS ADMINISTRATION.

vicinity of the great temple at Dambulla reaches the sea at
Kalpitiya. The work was commenced on the grandest
imaginable scale. The area submerged was more than
40 miles in circumference, and the waters were thrown
back by the embankment till they overflowed the lowcountry
 round the rock which overhangs the temple at
Dambaulla. In the opposite direction a canal more than
60 miles in length communicated with Anuradhapura. The
retaining bund was 12 miles long, and the spill was formed
of hammered granite.*
“ Minneri,—One of the most lovely of these artificial lakes
was enclosed by Maha Sen, 275 A:D., and together with
80,000 amunams (say 200,000 English acres) of ground which
it waters, was conferred on the Jetavanarama Vihare. Universal
 acclaim pronounces Minneri to be the most charming
sylvan spot in Ceylon. The reservoir is upwards of 20 miles
in circumference, but as it lies embayed at the confluence
of numerous valleys separated by low-wooded steeps, no
point on its margin commands a view of its entire expanse.
The whole scene—the hills, the hanging woods, and the
glassy waters—seemed to my mind like visions of Killarney
warmed and illumined by an Eastern sun. We rode for a
mile along the bund, which, although overgrown with lofty
trees, remains nearly perfect, and the ancient conduit still
gives issue to the pent-up flood that, after fertilizing a
considerable area, flows in a broad stream to the Mahaweliganga.t

* Paduvilkulam.—The tank itself is the basin of a broad
and shallow valley, formed by two lines of low hills which
gradually sink into the plain as they approach towards
the sea. The extreme breadth of the enclosed space may be
12 or 14 miles, narrowing to 11 at the spot where the retaining
 bund has been constructed across the valley; and when
this enormous embankment was in effectual repair and the
reservoir filled bythe rains, the water must have been thrown
back along the basin of the valley for at least 15 miles.
“The command of labour must have been extraordinary at
the time when such construction was successfully carried
out, and the population enormous to whose use it was
adapted. Thenumber of cubic yards in the bund is upwards
of 17 millions, and at the ordinary rates of labour in this
country must have cost £1,300,000, without including the
stone facing on the inner side of the bank. The same sum
of money that would at the present day be absorbed in

* This tank was restored about fifteen years ago.
+ This work is now under restoration, and when complete will irrigate
15,000 acres.