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A VISIT TO CEYLON

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Ernst Haeckel.

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A VISIT TO GEY

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ERNST HAECKEL

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ArXIIOIl «)K " TIIK HISTORV OK CRKATIOX,' THE HISTORY OF THK KVOLCTIOX OF MAN," ETC.

TRANSLATED BY CLARA BELL

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P.iSSEiRVATION I SfcRVIOfS ;

3AteN0V-9 1988

New York :

PETER ECKLER. PUBLISHER,

35 Fulton Street.

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CONTENTS.

CHAPTER L

EN ROUTE FOB INDIA.

VAGI

A. naturalist's voyage to India— From Jena to Trieste — The good ship Eelios — From Trieste via Brindisi to Port Said — The heat in the Red Sea — Aden — Medusse in the Indian Ocean ... ,,, ... 1

CHAPTER II.

A WEEK IN BOMBAY.

Arrival in Bombay — The town and island— Malabar Hill — The Hindoos — Parsi funeral rites — The Palm-Grove of Mahim — The village of Valukesh war— Fakirs — Elephanta— Tropical vegetation— An ex- cursion to the Dekhan— The Palmyra palm — Temple-cave of Karli 42

CHAPTER IIL

COLOMBO.

Arrival in Ceylon — Cinghalese canoes — The town and anburbs- -Indian

gardens — The population of Ceylon ... .^ «., ... 73

CHAPTER IV.

»* WHIST BUNGALOW.**

Muiwal — The history of the bungalow — Mangrove thickets — The garden of " Whist Bungalow " — The museum at Colombo — Precautions ■gainst the tropical climate — Indian meals „, .^ ,. 93

VI CONTENTS.

CHAPTER V.

KADUWELLA.

PAOB

Horses and carriages in Ceylon — The outskirts of Colombo — The situa- tion of Kaduwella on the Kalauy River — Rest-houses — The juDgle — A larfie Iguana — The cocoa-nut pa!m ••• ••• ... 114

CHAPTER VI.

FERADENIA.

Botanical Garden —Railway from Colombo to Kandy— Kadup:anawa — The talipot palm — Dr. Tiimen — Indiarubber trees — Dr. Marshall Ward — Huge bamboos — Land leeches— Flying foxes — A spectacled snake ... ••• ... ... ••• ••. •- 126

CHAPTER VII.

KANDT.

The capital of the hill country — The old palace of the Kandy kings—

The Temple of the Tooth— Dr. Thwaites' bungalow ... ,., i44

CHAPTER VIII.

THE BOAD FEOM COLOMBO TO GALLl.

Schemes for work — The harbours of Trincomalie, Galle, and Belligam — Bullock-carts — The "Royal Mail Coach'* — Cocoa-nut woods and PandanM«— Caltura — The price of a white skin ... ... ,^ 149

CHAPTER IX.

POINT DE GALLE.

The Tarshish of the East — Queen's House — Mr. Scott — The native town— Captain Bayley's bungalow — The doom palm — Buona Vista — The coral banks of Galle— The predominance of green hues in Ceylon — Divers — L^fe among the coral reefs ... ... ••• 173

CHAPTER X.

BELLIGAM.

Daybreak in the tropics — A drive across country — A solemn reception by the natives — The headmen — The rest house — Socrates and Gany- mede—Rodiya caste — The cook and William ... ... ... 191

CONTENTS. YU

CHAPTER XL

A ZOOLOGICAL LABORATORY IN OBTLON.

PAOR

My domestic arrangements and difficulties — The canoe — Aretshi Abayavira — Fishing near Belligam — Native curiosity — Insects and other foes ^ ••• ... ••• ... ... ,«• 206

CHAPTER XII.

SIX WEEKS AMONG THE CINGHALESE.

Plan of a day at Relligam— Curry and rice — Various fruits — Fish — Roast monkey — Disturbed nights — Coloured prints for barter — A Buddhist festival— Christmas feast at the Wesley an Mission house — ^The cremation of a Buddhist priest ... ... ••• ... 226

CHAPTER XIII.

BASAMUNA AND MIRISSA.

The harbour of Belligam— West Cape — The red cliflEs of Basamuna — Delicious evenings — East Cape — Miriasa — Cinghalese children — A splendid sunset .». .. ... ... ... ... 246

CHAPTER XIV.

KOGALLA AND BORALU.

The rocky lake — The pebbly lake — The n^^tural wonders of Dina Pitya

— Enormous snakes — The Aretshi'tj garden — Cinghalese sports ... 2d»

CHAPTER XV.

MATURA AND DONDERA.

The " Star-fort " at Matura — Ruins of a temple at Dondera Head — The southern point of Ceylon — A sail to the southwards — Treasures of the deep — Farewell to Belligam ... ... „, ... 267

CHAPTER XVI.

THE COFFEE DISTRICT AND HILL COUNTRY.

The extent of the highlands of Ceylon — Coffee culture — Adam's Peak — A walk through the plantations — Tamil coolies — The hospitality of Englisli planters ... ... ... ... ... ... 274

^■^ I hi i

Viil CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XVII.

NEWERA ELLIA.

PAQI

The climate of the plateau — Nevvera EUia as a sanatarium — The flora of the hill country — Kxpeditions from Newera Ellia — The highest point of Ceylon — RangboJJe and Hackgalla ... ... „, 288

CHAPTER XVIIL

AT THE world's END.

Horton's Plain — The patenas— The primaeval forest — Nilloo jungle — Horton's Pluin rest-house — Piairie hurning — The inhabitants of the wilderness — The ravine at World's End — Wild elephants — Non- pareil—Tree-ferns ... ... ... ,„ ... ... 300

CHAPTER XIX.

THE BLACK RIVER.

Mountain torrents — ^Marvels of tropical vegetation— Log bridges — Land leeches — Journey to Ratuapoora— Down the Black River to Caltura — Shooting the rapids ... ... ... ... ... ... 313

CHAPTER XX.

HOME THROUGH EGYPT.

The last week in Colombo— Farewell to Ceylon — A delightful voyage — Two days in Cairo — The petrifitd forest — A comparison of Egypt with Ceylon — The date and cocoa-nut palms — English policy in Egypt — English colonial government — Home to Jena ... ... 826

A VISIT TO CEYLON.

CHAPTER I.

EN ROUTE FOR INDIA.

"What ! Beally, to India?" So my friends in Jena exclaimed, and so I myself exclaimed, how often I know not, when at the end of last winter (1880-81), and under the immediate influence of our dreary North German February, I had finally made up my mind to spend the next winter in the tropical sunshine of Ceylon, that island of wonders. A journey to India is no longer an elaborate business, it is true ; in these travel-loving and never-resting times there is no quarter of the globe that is spared by the tourist. We rush across the remotest seas in the luxurious steamships of our days in a relatively shorter time and with less '* circumstance " and danger than, a hundred years since, attended the much- dreaded " Italian tour," which is now an every-day affair. Even " a voyage round the world in eighty days " has become a familiar idea, and many a youthful citizen of the world, who is rich enough to do it, flatters himself that he can, by a journey round the world occupying less than a

B

t A VISIT TO CEYLON.

year's time, acquire a more comprehensive and many-sided education than by ten years spent at the best schools.

A voyage to India can lay no claim to any special interest, particularly as an abundant supply of the best literature exists on that wonderful land ; and I ought perhaps to offer some exceptional excuse for inviting the reader to accompany me on my six months' journey to and through Ceylon. You who do so, worthy or fair reader, must permit me to initiate you into my own personal in- terests as a student and lover of nature, since these and these alone gave occasion to the expedition on which we are about to start.

That every naturalist who has made it his life-task to study the forms of organic life on the earth, should desire to see for himself all the marvels of tropical nature, is self- evident ; it must be one of his dearest wishes. For it is only between the tropics, and under the stimulating in- fluence of a brighter sun and greater heat, that the animal and vegetable life on our globe reach that highest and most marvellous variety of form, compared to which the fauna and flora of our temperate zone appear but a pale and feeble phantom. Even as a boy, when my favourite reading was an old collection of travels, I delighted in nothing so much as in the primseval forests of India and Brazil ; and when, somewhat later, Humboldt's "Aspects of Nature,"* Schleiden's "Plant Life,"t Kittlitz's "Aspects of Vegetation,"! and Darwin's " Naturalist's Voyage," incited and determined my tastes and influenced my whole life, a voyage in the

* Translated by Mrs. Sabine. Lond. 1849.

t The PLmt : translMted by A. Henfrey. Lond. 1848.

X Vegetations-Ausichten. Wiesbaden, 1854.

EN ROUTE FOR INDIA. 8

tropics became the goal of my most eager desires. At first I could only hope to make such a journey as a medical man ; and it was principally with this view, that, as a young student, now thirty years ago, I determined on adding medicine to my favourite studies in botany and zoology. But many years were to pass by before the cherished dream was to be realized.

When, twenty-five years since, I had completed my medical course, all the endeavours I made to carry out my project of travelling as a doctor fell to the ground. At last I thought myself fortunate when, in 1859, I was able to make a prolonged tour in Italy, and to spend a year on the beautiful shores of the Mediterranean, which I learnt to love while devoting myself to the study of the multiform in- habitants of its waters. After my return, a regular avocation and a sudden alteration in my private circumstances threw all further projects of travel into the background. At Easter, 1861, I was appointed to a professorship in the University, which I have now held for twenty years, spending my vacations, after the example of my illustrious master and friend, Johannes Miiller, in excursions to the sea coast, for purposes of study. A special passion for the most interesting branch of zoology: the lower orders of marine creatures, and above all Zoophytes and Protozoa — to which Miiller himself had directed my attention in Heligoland, in 1854 — led me in the course of the next twenty years to visit the most dissimilar shores of Europe. In the preface to my work on the Medusse, I have given a brief account of the various spots on the coast where, during this period, I fished, dredged and observed worked with the microscope, and made drawings. But still the varied shores of the

• A VISIT TO CEYLON.

peerless Mediterranean, in many respects unique, always proved the most attractive.

Twice, however, I was enabled to outstep the limits of this delightful province. I spent the winter of 1866-67 in the Canary Isles, for the most part in the volcanic and almost barren rock of Lancerote ; and early in 1873, I made a wonderful excursion in an Egyptian man-of-war, from Suez to Tur, to visit the coral-reefs of the Red Sea, and I there wrote my monograph on the corals of the Arabian coast.* On both occasions I very nearly reached the tropical zone, and lived at a few degrees only to the north of it ; but in each case I was within reach of a region which is but meagrely endowed with its principal charm, the glory of tropical vegetation.

The more the naturalist sees and enjoys of the beauties of Nature on this globe, the more he longs to extend the domain of sight. After a delightful autumn visit, which I paid in 1880 to the castle of Portofino, near Genoa — a pleasure I owe to the kind hospitality of the English consul, Mr. Montagu Brown — I returned loaded wdth a mass of interesting zoological and botanical experiences to the quiet little town of Jena. But, only a few weeks later, accident threw into my hands — not f(jr the first time — the beautiful work on Ceylon, by Ransonnet,"f" the Viennese painter, and my recollecticms of the charms of Portofino made the more splendid marvels of the cinnamon island seem doubly and overpoweringly attractive, though I had often before dwelt on them with wistful yearning. I looked

♦ Arabische Korallen. Berlin, 1875.

t Ceyloi), Skizzeii seiner Bewohner, Thier-und Pflauz-Leben. Braunsch* weig, 18G8

EN ROUTE FOR INDIA. 6

up the various routes to India, and discovered, to my joy, that " the struggle for existence " among the various lines of steam-packets had, within the last few years, considerably reduced the high fares, and had probably also diminished the various discomforts of the voyage. But tempting above all was an announcement that the Austrian Lloyd's Com- pany had now opened a double service of steamships to India from Trieste, both of which touched at Ceylon. I had the most favourable recollections of this company's vessels from many passages on the Mediterranean, and by their agency I could hope to attain my end most safely, comfortably, and easily.

The sea voyage from Trieste to Ceylon, vid Egypt and Aden, occupies about four weeks; six days are spent in the passage from Trieste to Port Said, two in the Suez Canal, six in the Ked Sea, and eleven in crossing the Indian ocean from Aden to Ceylon. Three or four days are spent at the different ports touched at. Thus, if I could obtain six months' leave of absence, I might allow two months for the voyages out and home, and reckon on four months' stay in Ceylon itself With its fine climate and the good order prevailing in this beautiful island, the journey offered no prospects of danger. Besides, I reflected that I was already eight and forty, and that consequently it was high time to undertake the journey, if it was ever to be accomplished at all. Various circumstances, which are of no importance iiere, favoured a prompt decision ; so by Easter, 1881, I had sketched a plan of my journey, and at once began my pre- parations for carrying it out. The leave of absence, as well as a considerable sum of money for beginning a collection of the Natural History of India, was liberally granted by

6 A VISIT TO CEYLON.

the grand ducal government of Weimar. In order to qualify m^^self to make the best use of the short time at my dis- posal, I read all the most important works on Ceylon and its natural products ; above all, the admirable description, which to this day retains its value, in Carl Ritter's classical work * and Sir Emerson Tennent's important book, " Ceylon, an account of the island, physical, historical, and topogra- phical." t I also looked through a number of traveller's narratives, old and new, which contained some account of the island.

I then inspected, repaired, and completed the various instruments and apparatus for examining and collecting specimens which always formed part of my paraphernalia in my voyages along the coast, and I added considerably to their number. I took advantage of the summer months to learn and practice vai'ious arts which I deemed might prove especially useful and desirable on this journey — such as oil- painting, photogTaphy, the use of a gun, of nets and traps, soldering metal, etc. As the climate seemed to render it advisable that I should not start before the middle of Octo- ber, I spent the autumn holidays in Jena, busied in making preparations and in packing my very considerable appa- ratus. Although the special object of my journey was to be restricted within the limits of my own departments of study, more particularly animal and plant life, there were many other questions in natural history to which I might be able to render subsidiary aid, and which I must be more or less ready to investigate.

The naturalist who in these days betakes himself to the coast to carry on his studies of animal and plant life Erdkunde : Ostasien, vol. iv. pt. iL t Loudon, 1860.

EN ROUTE FOR INDIA. 7

no longer finds his microscope, his dissecting knife, and a few other simple instruments a sufficient equipment, as he would have done twenty or even ten years since. The methods of biological, and more particularly of micro- scopical research, have been developed and perfected within the last decade in a very remarkable degree ; an elaborate and extensive array of instruments of the most various kinds is indispensable to enable him at all to meet the requirements of the present day.

In fact, no less than sixteen trunks and cases were shipped at Trieste as my luggage. Two of these were filled with books — none but the most necessary scientific works ; two others contained a microscope and instruments for observations in physics and the study of anatomy. In two other cases I had apparatus for collecting and materials for preserving specimens; soldered tins, containing different kinds of spirit and other antiseptic fluids, carbolic acid, arsenic and the like. Then two cases contained nothing but glass phials — of these I had some thousands — and two more were packed with nets and appliances of every kind for snaring and catching the prey ; trawls and dredging nets for raking the bottom of the sea, sweeping and landing nets for skimming the surface. A photographic apparatus had a chest to itself, and one was filled with materials for oil and water-colour painting, drawing and writing; another was packed with a nest of forty tin cases, one inside the other, and so arranged that when I should have filled one with specimens I could myself easily solder down the flat tin lid. Then another contained ammunition for my double- barrelled gun — a thousand cartridges with diflerent sizes of shot. Most of these fourteen cases were covered with tin

8 A VISIT TO CEYLON.

and soldered down in order to protect their contents from damp, come what might, during the long sea voyage. Finally, in two tin trunks I had clothes and linen to last me during my six months' wanderings.

In view of this somewhat considerable outfit, which it had cost me no small care and trouble to prepare and pack, even before I left Jena, I may think it particularly for- tunate that one wish that I had eagerly cherished at the beginning of my enterprise failed of fulfilment. It is a well- known fact that among all the recent investigations of marine life none have yielded such grand and surprising results as the deep-sea soundings which we owe to the English naturalists, Sir Wyville Thomson, Carpenter, John Murray, Moseley and others. While, twenty years ago, the depths of the ocean were supposed to be devoid of life, and an universally accepted dogma asserted that organic life ceased at a depth of two thousand fathoms below the sur- face of the sea, the brilliant researches of English voyagers during the last ten years have proved the contrary. It has been found that the bottom of the sea, as far down as it could be investigated — to a depth of twenty-seven thousand feet — is thickly peopled with animals of various orders ; for the most part with creatures hitherto unknown to science, and displaying at different zones of depth a variation corresponding to that of the zones of vegetation at different levels on mountain heights.

All deep-sea soundings, however, and, particularly the very remarkable and unprecedented researches of the "Challenger expedition," had been made in the Atlantic ocean and some small areas of the Pacific; the immense province of the Indian ocean, on the other hand, remained

EN ROUTE FOR INDIA. 9

unexplored, or excepting at most a small tract at the very south. An undreamed wealth of new and unknown deep-sea creatures no doubt remained to be discovered by the happy naturalist who should be the first to cast the improved deep-sea net now in use in the unexplored depths of the Indian ocean. It was, therefore, certainly excusable if a wish to find these hidden treasures influenced my first sketch of my journey. Why should not I be the first to make the trial — perhaps to fail, like so many others — still, at any rate to try ? Deep-sea sounding is, to be sure, a very expensive amusement, even when it is under- taken in the simplest and least expensive manner possible, as I should have done it. I could not, in any case, think of making such an attempt out of my own modest private resources. However, I might try to obtain means for such a purpose from different institutions founded for the en- couragement of scientific discovery. The most important and inriuential institution of this kind in Germany is the Academy of Sciences in Berlin, and many travellers have received considerable assistance, partly out of its own ample funds and partly out of the Humboldt endowment of which it has the control.

When, at Easter, 1881, I took the opportunity of a short visit to Berlin to discuss my approaching journey to Ceylon with my friends there, I was strongly urged by them to ap- ply for the travelling allowance granted out of the Humboldt fund, at that time unemployed ; ^particularly as it had then accumulated to a very considerable sum. I must confess that it was with much reluctance that I consented to act on my benevolent friends' suggestion. For, on one hand, I had hitherto achieved all my scientific excursions, during more

10 A VISIT TO CEYLON.

than five and twenty years, without any help of the kind^ and had learnt the art of carrying out the object of my journey, even in very narrow circumstances, and with the most moderate private means ; and, on the other hand, the most influential members of the Berlin Academy were, as was well-known, the most vehement opponents of the doc- trine of evolution, while I, for many years, had been deeply interested in its advancement and development. It was there that an attempt had been made to set a barrier to its irresistible progress, of which the motto should have been " Ignorahhnur et restringainur" to which I had re- torted, " lonjoavidi progrediamur ; " and I knew beforehand that this challenge would never be forgiven. I was there- fore not surprised when, a few months later, my Berlin friends were informed that the Academy had simply refused the application.

This annihilated my hopes of deep-sea discovery in the Indian ocean ; it is still left to another and a more fortunate man to raise its treasures of zoology from " the vasty deep." I could only hope that the surface of the tropical seas might yield so much that was new and interesting that the short time granted me might not exhaust them; and, at any rate, standing entirely on my own feet, that first of blessings w^ould be mine on which I had long since learnt to set due value, perfect freedom and independence.

In contrast to these and other unpleasant experiences in preparing for my journey, I am so happy as to be able to express my most heartfelt thanks to the far more numerous circle of those kind friends who, so soon as they heard oi my scheme, accorded me their warmest sympathy and did all in their power to encourage and promote it. Foremost

EN ROUTE rOR INDIA. 11

of these I must name Charles Darwin and Dr. Paul Rotten- burg, of Glasgow ; Sir Wy ville Thomson and John Murray, of Edinburgh ; Professor Eduard Suess, of Vienna ; Baron von Konigsbrunn, of Gratz; Heinrich Krauseneck, and Captain Kadonetz (of the Austrian Navy), of Trieste. I feel no less bound to express my grateful acknowledgments to the grand ducal administration of Weimar for its generous encouragement of the objects of my journey, and especially to his Royal Highness the Grand Duke Carl Alexander of Saxe Weimar, Rector magnificenti ssirrt^us of the University of Jena, and to the prince his son. By their kind oflBces I had an introduction from the English Colonial Secretary to the Governor of Ceylon; I was also abundantly supplied with other recommendations. Finally, let me here offer the right hand of friendship to my many good friends and colleagues at Jena, who all in their several ways command my gratitude for their assistance in my undertaking.

When, at last, all my preparations were completed, and twelve of my cases, which had been forwarded some weeks previously, were reported safe at Trieste, I left my quiet home at Jena on the morning of October the 8th. The parting was no trifle ; I felt keenly what for many weeks had been growing upon me with increasing anxiety — that a separation for six months from wife and children, with five thousand miles of land and sea to part us, was no light matter for the father of a family at the age of eight and forty. How differently could I have started, without a shadow of care, in the vigour of youth twenty-five years since, when such an expedition was the height of my hopes and I would have dared everything to achieve it. Twenty

12 A VISIT TO CEYLON.

years of teaching had of course made me familiar with the problems of my own department of zoological research, and being acquainted beforehand with the special questions on which my journey was to throw light, I could no doubt solve them better and in a shorter time now, when I had experience to aid me, than a quarter of a century earlier ; thus I might look forward to fuller results. But was not I myself by so many years older ? Had I not lost so much of my elasticity of mind and vigour of body ? And would the actual living wonders of the most luxuriant tropical scene make as vivid impression on me now, when I had so far mastered the more abstract generalizations of natural science, as they undoubtedly would have made then ? Had I not once more reached a stage — as I had often done before — where my excited imagination had conj ured up a magical picture which, when I approached the sober reality, would vanish into vacancy, like the Fata Morgana ?

These and similar reflections, mingled with sadness at parting from my family and home, floated across my mind like dark clouds as I was carried along the Saale railway from Jena to Leipzig, early on the 8th October ; and a cold, dim, autumn fog hung round me, filling and shrouding the pretty Saale valley. Only the highest points of our Muschel Jcalk hills stood out above the rolling sea of mist — on the right the lengthy slope of the Hausberg with its " redly gleaming summit," the proud pyramid of the Jenzig, and the romantic ruins of Kunitzburg ; on the left the wooded heights of "Rauthal, and farther on Goethe's favourite retreat, delightful Dornburg. I registered a solemn promise to my old and beloved mountain friends, that I would return in spring, in g-ood health and loaded with treasures

EN ROUTE FOR INDIA. VS

from India ; and they, in ratification, sent me back a morn- ing greeting, foi even as we swept past their feet, the haze rolled away from their heads and sides before my eyes, and the victorious san mounted in golden radiance, while the clouds cleared from the sky ; a most exquisite autumn morning sun shone out in all its beauty, and the dewdrops twinkled like beads on the delicately fringed cups of the lovely dark blue gentians which abundantly gemmed the grassy slopes on each side of our iron road.

I took advantage of a few hours' detention in Leipzig to fill up some deficiencies in my outfit, and to refresh myself with gazing in the picture gallery at the masterpieces of the landscape painters, Preller, Calame, Qudin, Saal and others. In the afternoon I proceeded to Dresden, and from thence, by the night express, reached Vienna in twelve hours. After a short rest I set out again by the southern line of railway for Gratz. It was a splendid autumn Sunday, and the Alp-like scenery of Semmering smiled in perfect beauty. Here, in the wooded gorges and on the flowery downs of lovely Steiermark, I had botanized, twenty-four years before, with really passionate zeal : every height of the Schneeberg and of the Rax- Alp was fresh in my memory. The young M.D. had devoted himself far more eagerly to the interesting flora of Vienna, than to the learned clinical lectures of Oppolzer and Skoda, of Hebra and Siegmund. When drying the prodigious quantities of exquisite and minute Alpine plants which I collected on the hills of Semmering, often had I dreamed of the widely different and gigantic flora of India and Brazil, which display the plasmic force of vegetable vitality with such dissimilarity of form and size; and now, in a

Xi A VISIT TO CEYLON.

few weeks, that dream would be realized in tangible actuality !

At Gratz, where I spent a day, I found capital accommo- dation at the Elephant Hotel. The first inn where it was my fate to put up on my way to India could have had no more appropriate name ; for, not only is the elephant one of the most important and interesting of Indian beasts, but it is the badge of the island of Ceylon. And I took it as of good omen for my future acquaintance with the real elephants which I hoped so soon to see, both tame and wild, that the Elephant at Gratz should, meanwhile, entertain me so hospitably and comfortably. I will take this opportunity of introducing an incidental remark for the use and benefit of such travellers as, like myself, look rather for kind attention at an inn than for a crowd of black-coated waiters. During my many years* wanderings, having had occasion to pass the night in hotels and inns of every degree, it has struck me that the character of these public refuges may be, to a certain extent, guessed at, merely from their name and sign. I divide them into three classes : the zoologico-botanical, the dubious, and the dynastic. Now by far the best inns, on an average, are those with zoologico-botanical signs, such as the Golden Lion, the Black Bear, White Horse, Bed Bull, Silver Swan, Blue Carp, Green Tree, Golden Vine, etc. You cannot count so confidently on good and cheap entertainment in such inns as I have designated as dubious, belonging neither to the first class nor the third; they have a great variety of names, often that of the owner himself, and are too miscellaneous as to quality for any general rules tc be given forjudging of them. On the other hand,

EN ROUTE FOR INDIA. 15

I have had, for the most part, the saddest experience — more especially of the converse relation of bad entertainment and high prices — of those hotels whicH I call dynastic; such as the Czar of Russia, King of Spain, Elector of Hesse, Prince Carl, and so on. Of course I do not pretend that this classification is of universal application ; but, on the whole, I believe that all judicious and unpretentious travellers, particularly the young, will find it justified, especially artists, painters, and naturalists. And the Ele- phant at Gratz was perfectly worthy of its place of honour in the zoological class.

I had been tempted to spend a day in Gratz by the friendly invitation of a distinguished landscape painter residino^ there. Baron Hermann von Konio^sbrunn. He had written to me some months since, saying that he had heard of my proposed voyage to Ceylon, that he had passed eight months there of great enjoyment, twenty-eight years before, and had made a large collection of sketches and pictures^ more particularly studies of the vegetation, which might perhaps prove interesting to me. This kind communication was of course most welcome. I myself could have no bettei preparation for sketching in Ceylon than looking through the Gratz painter's portfolios. He had made a tour through the palm forests and fern-clad gullies of the cinnamon isla in 1853, in the society of Captain von Friedan and Professoi Schmarda, of Vienna. The professor has given a full account of his residence in the island in his "Voyage round the World." Unfortunatel}'- the numerous very admirable drawings which Baron von Konigsbrunn made on the spot, and which were intended to illustrate Schmarda's travels, have never been published. This is the more to be regretted

16 A VISIT TO CEYLON.

because they are among the best and most highly finished works of the kind that I have ever seen. Even Alexander von Humboldt — certainly a competent judge — who laid bhem before King Frederick William IV., spoke of them in terms of the highest praise. Konigsbrunn's studies in Ceylon combine two qualities which almost seem incom- patible, and which unfortunately are very rarely met with together in works of this kind, though both are equally necessary to give them the true stamp of perfect resem- blance : on one hand, the greatest truth to nature in render- ing with conscientious exactitude all the details of form ; on the other, a delightful artistic freedom in the treatment of each part, and effective composition of the picture as a whole. Many works by our most famous landscape painters, which fulfil the second of these conditions, utterly fail in the first. On the other hand, many studies of vegetation, as represented by practised botanists, are painfully devoid of the artist's independent feeling for beauty. But one is just as necessary as the other — the botanist's analytical and objective eye, the artist's synthetical and subjective mind. If a landscape is to be a real work of art it must, like a portrait, combine perfect truth and nature in the details with a broad grasp of the character of the model as a whole ; and this is conspicuous in the highest degree in Konigs- brunn's pictures of Ceylon. In these respects they quite come up to the mark of Kittlitz's famous work, " The Aspects of Vegetation," which Alexander von Humboldt declared to be, in his day, an unapproachable model beside which few could hold their own. I may, perhaps, venture in this place to express my best thanks to an artist who is as amiable and modest as he is original and gifted, and at the

EN ROUTE FOR INDIA. 17

same time a hope that his noble works may ere long find their way out of the peaceful obscurity of his studio and meet with public notice and the recognition they deserve.

After taking an affectionate leave of many old and new friends in Gratz, I set out southwards again on October 11th for Trieste direct. An elderly man took his seat opposite to me in the carriage, whom I recognized as an Englishman at the first glance, and who, in the course of half an hour's conversation, introduced himself as a person- age of the greatest interest to me — Surgeon-General Dr. J. Macbeth. He had served for thirty-three years as surgeon to the English forces in India, had taken his share of toil in several wars and in all parts of India, from Afghanistan to Malacca, and from the Himalayas to Ceylon. His wide experience of the country and people, as well as his observ- ations as a medical man and a naturalist, were to me of course highly interesting and instructive, and I almost regretted that, at ten o'clock that evening, our arrival at Trieste put an end to our conversation.

The three days in Trieste before the Lloyd's steamer was to sail, were for the most part taken up in anxieties concern- ing my outfit and luggage, which I had deferred till the last. I stayed at the house of my dear and honoured friend, Heinrich Krauseneck (a nephew of my father's old friend and comrade, the Prussian general, famous in the war for liberty). The warm and friendly reception which I had already found here on many former occasions was now especially comforting to me, and greatly softened the pain of quitting Europe. Other kind friends also met me with their wonted heartiness, and once more I bid farewell to the great Austrian port and emporium with a feeling of

18 A VISIT TO CEYLON.

leaving a portion of my German home behind me. And tbi hours flew by so quickly that I could not even pay a visit to the poetic site of Miramar, that matchless castle by the sea, whose beauty and situation seem to point it out as the most fitting scene for an act in the tragedy of the Emperor Maximilian of Mexico. What a subject for some dramatist of the future !

Nor was there time even for an excursion to the neigh- bouring bay of Muggia. This lovely bay, teeming with marine life, is rendered famous to naturalists by Johannes Miiller's discovery of the singular umvalve Entoconcha mira- bills, which lives inside the Holothuria. On former visits to Trieste I had often dredged there, and almost always with success ; but now the prospect of Indian fishing threw the Mediterranean into the background. Besides, my ponderous baggage absorbed all my attention. By the day before the start all the cases were safe on board the ship, and all my preparations were complete. With regard both to the packing and transport of all this luggage, as well as in all that regarded my personal accommodation and comfort as a passenger, I met with the kindest attention and most efficient aid from the directors of the Austrian Lloyd's Com- pany, particularly with reference to the scientific aim and object of my journey. That liberal and intelligent body having already afforded special assistance and facilities to other scientific voyagers, I hoped for some such help in my own expedition. This I received to the very fullest extent, and I am doing no more than my duty in recording here my heartiest and sincerest gratitude to the chairman of the company, Baron Marco di Morpurgo, as well as to the board of directors, and among them particularly my distin-

EN ROUTE FOR INDIA. 19

gnished friend, Captain Radonetz, of the Austrian navy. Not only was I provided with a special and most effective letter of recommendation to each and all of the company's agents and officers, not only was one of the best first-class cabins onboard the ship I sailed in devoted to my exclusive use, but a considerable reduction in expense was allowed me and every possible comfort ensured.

And now on board at last ! on the fine, safe steamship which is to carry me in four weeks to the shores of India. I had my choice of two first-class vessels belonging to the company, both starting on October 15th from Trieste for India vid the Suez canal. The first, the Helios, touches only at Aden and proceeds direct to Bombay; there it remains for eight days and then goes on to Ceylon, Singa- pore and Hong Kong. The second steamer, the Follu.ce, on its way from Suez down the Red Sea, touches at Djedda, the port for Mecca, and then proceeds from Aden to Ceylon and on to Calcutta. I selected the Helios, as this would give me an opportunity of seeing Bombay and a part of the Indian peninsula, which I otherwise could scarcely have accom- plished. Moreover, the Helios was the finer, swifter, and larger vessel, quite new, and of a most inviting appearance. Finally, the name of the ship attracted me strangely, for could the good ship which was to transport me within the short space of one month, as if it were Faust's magical cloak, from the grey and foggy shore of my northern home, to the sunlit and radiant palm-groves of India, have a name of better omen than that of the ever-youthful Sun-god ? Was it not my very purpose to see what the all-powerful and procreating Sun could call into life in the teeming earth and seas of the tropics ? Noinen sit omen f And, after all.

20 A VISIT TO CEYLON.

why should not I cherish my scrap of superstition like any other man ? Moreover, I could surely count on the good graces of the Helios, since I had already called a whole class of humble phosphorescent Protozoa Heliozoa — creatures of the Sun — and only a few weeks previously, when completing my new system of classification of the Radiolaria, had named a number of new genera of these elegant atoms in honour of Helios: Heliophacus, Heliosestrum, Heliostylus, Heliodry- mus, etc. So, I beseech thee, adored Sun-god, that this my zoological tribute may find favour in thine eyes ! Guide me, safe and sound, to India, that I may labour in thy light, and return home under thy protection in the spring !

The Austrian Lloyd's steamship Helios is one of their largest and finest vessels, and as that floating hotel was for a whole month my most comfortable, clean and hospitable home, I must here give some account of her build and accommodation. She is long, narrow and three-masted ; her length being 300 feet (English), her breadth 35 feet, and her depth, from deck to keel, 26 feet. Above this a saloon is built, nine feet high. She registers 2380 tons ; the engines are of 1200 horse-power (400 nominal). The fore- part contains the second cabins with a saloon ; and over it, the stalls for our floating cattle farm, including a few cows and calves, a flock of fine Hungarian sheep with long twisted horns, and a large number of fowls and duclcs. The middle portion of the vessel is occupied by the mighty engines, which work not only the screw, but the rudder, the various cranes, and the machinery for the electric light ; the apparatus for distilling drinking water is also con- nected with them, and behind is a large hold for storing the passengers' luggage. The after-part of the ship is princi-

EN ROUTE FOR INDIA. 21

pally occupied by the best cabins, which have two spacious and airy saloons, one above and one below the deck; an open gallery runs round the upper saloon, and