ANCIENT ARTIFICIAL IRRIGA''TION, 31

cost would be $3,000,000. The oldest of these structures was
erected in the year 307 B.C., and the latest in the year 276 A.D.
In their present state these mountains of masonry more
nearly resemble natural features in the landscape than the
mere work of men’s hands, covered as they are with lofty
trees whose roots have taken firm hold in the crumbling
brickwork ; but in their pristine grandeur, their stately domes
glistening like white marble, crowned with gilded cupolas,
surrounded by colonnades of statuary, and embowered in
dense foliage, they must have presented a scene calculated to
impress the most unimpassioned observer.

PEMPLE OF THE TOOTH. KANDYV

Alike defiant of decay and triumphant over time, these
stupendous relics of a bygone age are invested with a
singular interest as monuments of an age before the people
of the Bast had learned to hollow caves in rocks or elevaie
temples on the solid earth.
These religious monuments possessed a corporate
character, and to their maintenance and repair were
ledicated thousands of broad acres of rice land.
This leads to another branch of our subject, viz., the ancient
reservoirs, canals, and other artificial irrigation works of
Ceylon which the cultivation of rice rendered necessary in