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THESE is no island in the. world to whose varied charms thalite- rature- of. all nations, ancient and. modern, has- borne such en- thusiastic testimony as to those of Ceylon: Greeks and Orientals have-lavished: upon. this " pearl on the brow of. India" the most glowing epithets. The Mohammedans, seeing- in it the nearest actual approach to- their conception -or Paradise, concluded in their imaginative logic that it was the very spot where. our first. parente:sought consolation after they hadheen driven out. of Edem. The early voyagers of Europe, expressed their admiration in the fable,-that far to seaward" "the spicy breezes. blow sweet from • Ceylon's isle andmodernscienca has deelaredthatthe wondrous island exhibits in all its manifold. attractions the highest coneeiv- _able development of Indian nature. Sin Emerson Tennant, who has closed the long list of writers- on Ceylon by an_ exhaustive- work, in which fine taste and literary excellence giVe life. and grace to the fruits of vast and minute researches,, presents an. au,- thentic picture of the island. which, more than: verifies. the best traitsin. the ideal: picture our fancy had: lanced:. Ceylon, he tells% us from whatever direction it may be approached; unfolds a some oelbveliness. and grandeur unsurpassed, if it be rivalled, by any land' in the universe. The modern voyager to its shores can con- firm the record which the mariners of the Persian Gulf have left of their delight in. reaching the main havens of the island, and reposing. for months together in valleys- where thawaters of the sea were overshadowed by woods, and the gardens were-bloom- ing in perpetual summer. Nor does the enchantment cease upon. a. nearer view of the interior. The crystalline rocks that form the nucleus- of the mountains have rent the superineumbent strata- into• orags, and pinnacles; and gigantic scattered fragments, and have shot up. above them into- prodigious and almost preeipitous heights.. The- plenteous sea vapours caught. by these lofty barriers, and the intense warmth of the atmosphere;. clothe the lower fends with a- vegetation " swrich; and luxuriant that imagination can picture nothing more-won- thous and' charming.; every:level spot is enamelled with verdure,. forests of never-fading bloom. cover mountain_ and valley ;_ ilewers of. the.brig.htest.hues grow- in profusion over the plains,- and- deli; rate okmbroc pltuats, rooted in the shelving magi hang' in huge festoons down, the edge of every precipice." And though, per- petual summer reigns inthiS natural garden, there is no want of that variety of tint which forms the charm ota European land- scape ; for the change of. leaf on the same plant exhibits colours as bright as those which• tinge the autumnal. woods of America. The old leaves are still vividly green, whilst at the extremities of the bronchass the pang leaves are bursting forth in tufts of pane. yellovr, pink crimson, and purple, looking: at a, distance 1 e- clizstera of flowers: Mortal maladies are too often the price' which Europeans must pay, for the delights of tropical lands, but such penalties. may easily be escaped in Ceylon: Malaria is there confined, to par- ticular localities which are-well known and avoided.. The-climateiw much milder than: that of India, and exempt from its' extreme' vieii3situdes of temperature ;. the mean at Colombo- on an annual'. average scarcely exceeds 80'; the heat is never insupportable,. and. ingenuity has devised many expedients-for defence against it when: itas at its highest. Exercise may be taken.freely in the; morning and- afternoon' and sun strokes- are almost unknown in- the island; though. sportsmen are out all day in the. hottest weather. Should paleness and lassitude. yarn. Enropeans- withdraw for awhile from the coast, it is remarkable. how sod-- delay- they recover. the ruddy • aspect of health after a visitof a. very few days to the. plains of Neura-ellia; or the: picturescpie- coffee plantations on the hills that surround' it. The plateau of Neura.-ellia lying more than.6000 feet above the sea levelde in the estimation-of the European and the invalid the Elysium. of Ceylon. When it was first discovered.by some English officers:, who, in 1826, penetrated so far in pursuit of elephants, the: wise, governor, Sir- Edwitrd Barnes, immediately began to make' it available as a sanitary retreatir the troops. " At.this elevatfon, and encircled by mountains (which on the northern: side rise 2000 feet higher still), in the midst of a grassy plain, watered'hy: crystal streams, and surrounded by hills covered with luxuriant vegetation, stands the little hamlet ; the-smoke curling above. the. thatch of its white cottages in the midst of gardens of roses and mignonette; and.even of some European fruit-trees, that charm. with. their foliage, though. they rarely bring their fruit to .niaturity. It is difficult to imagine a higher enjeyment. than to mount between sunrise and sunset from the sultry calm of:Colombo to'the cool. and delicious breezes of this mountain. plateau;, to leave the flaming noon and the suffocating nights of the coast, and after. aajeurney of. less than• a. hundredaniles' along admirable rasa,. and through scenery un- surpassed:in its liveliness and grandeur, to rest. in an.Englislabottage, with a blazing. wood fire, to sleep under blankets,. and awake in-the-morning, to find thin ice on the water and hoar-frost encrustingthe herbage. " The temperature of Neura-ellia, according; to Davy,-ranges from.36'. to 819, (with. a. mean daily variance of 11°,) but the latter is higher than. is shown by resent experiment,- the average. at. noon-being now ascertained. to be about 62?, and the higheet observation of the unexposed. hermometer 70'.... Here the troops never change woollen for. other clothing, and European visitors are glad to recall pasociationikof England by producing their winter muffiingand enemas." Ceylon is seldom visited by-hurricanes or typhoons ; water- spoute are frequent on the coast; but instances are very-rare of • Ceylon: an.Accaunt.olthe Island, Physical, Historical, and Topographical., with Votices oritsHatural History, Antiquities, and Pi-eduction:: By Ihr Tames Emerson Tennetrt, H.U.S.,_LL.D., he, Illustrated-by Maga, Plans, and Drawings..

In two volumes. Published 'by Longman and Co.]- .

their bursting over the land, or of accidents in consequence. About the middle of May the clouds piled up.by the approach of the south-west monsoon dissolve with magnificent explosions of thunder.

" At last the sudden lightnings flash among the hills and sheet through_ the clouds that overhang the sea, and with a crash of thunder the monsoon bursts over the thirsty land, not in showers or partial torrents, but in a wide deluge, that in the course of a few hours overtops the riverbanks and spreads in inundations over every level plain.

" All the phenomena of this explosion are stupendous; thunder, as we are accustomed to be awed by it in Europe, affords but the faintest idea of its overpowering grandeur in Ceylon, and its sublimity is infinitely increased as it is faintly heard.from the shore, resounding throughnight and darkness over the gloomy, sea. The lightning, when it touches the earth where it is covered with the descending torrent, flashes into it and disappears instan- taneously ; but, when it strikes a drier surface, in seeking better con- ductors, it often opens a hollow like that formed by the explosion of a shell, and frequently leaves behind it traces of vitrification. In Ceylon, however, occurrences of this kind are rare, and' accidents are seldom recorded from lightning, probably owing.to the profusion of trees, and especially of coco- nut palms, which, when drenched with rain, intercept the discharge, and conduct the electric matter to the earth. The rain at these periods excites the astonishment ofa European : it descends in almost continuous streams,, so close and so dense that the level ground, unable to absorb it sufficiently fast, is covered with one uniform sheet of water, and down the sides of acclivities it rushes in a volume that wears channels in the surface. For hours together, the noise of the torrent, as it beats upon the trees and bursts upon the roofs,.flowing thence in rivulets along the ground, occasions an uproar that drowns the ordinary voice, and renders sleep impossible. "This violence, however, seldom lasts more than an hour or two, and gradually abates after intermittent paroxysms, and a serenely clear sky supervenes. For some days, heavy showers continue to fall at intervals in the forenoon ; and the evenings which follow are embellished by sunsets of the most gorgeous splendour, lighting the fragments of clouds thatsur- vire the recent storm."

The whole face of the•country. which before this downpour had been parched. and_ sombre,, bursts suddenly into verdure; birds and insects come forth from their biding places ;. the wild animals that had been driven from their retreats- by-drought; return to their wonted haunts; and in ponds from which-but a week before the wind blew cloudsof sandy dust, the peasants are busy, eateh:- ing the reanimated fish.. To account for so strange. a phenomenon. as the suddeureappearance of full-grown fishes in places which a. few days before had been encrusted with hardened; clay, it has-. been usualto have recourse to one or other of. two-conjectures- either that the spawn had been embedded in the dried, earth, till, released by the rains, or that .the fish had fallen.from-the clouds during thedeluge of.themonsoon; but neither hypothesisreven were it otherwise unobjectionable, suffices to account. for the presence of matur,e and-well-grown fish. " The factr says Sir. Emerson,." is- no longer doubtful that adult fish in Ceylon, like those-that in- habit similar waters in. the New- and Old World,, have been en- dowed by. the Creator with the singular faculty of providing.against the periodical droughts either by journeying. overland. in search- of. still =exhausted water, or on its utter disappearance,. by bury- ing themselves in the mud to await the return. of the rains., It was well known. to the Greeks that certain. fishes of Indiaipos- sessed the power of making long migrations on dry land; Sir John: Bowring was: witness of such a process during, his embassy. to Siam in. 1855.; in Ceylon the fish that.is most frequently seen in- these excursions is a. perch closely:allied to, if not id.entioal with,. the Amebas scandens of envier, the Fuca scandens of Daldorf., It generally travels. at night or in the early morning, whilst the grass is still wet with the dew; but Mr. E. L. Layard on one mica, non encountered a. number of them travelling along. a .hot and dusty gravel road under the midday, sun.

"But a still more remarkable power possessed by some of the Ceylon. fishes, is that of secreting themselves in the earth in the dry season, at the bottom of the exhausted ponds, and there awaiting the renewal of the water. at the change of the monsoon.

"The instinct of the crocodile to resort to the same expedient has been already referred to, and in like manner the fish, when distressed by the evaporation of the tanks, seek relief by immersing first their, heads, and by degrees their whole bodies, in the mud'; andainking to a depth at which they find sufficient moisture to preserve life in.a state of lethargy long after the bed of the tank has been consolidated by the intense heat of the sun. It is possible,.too,.that the cracks which reticulate the surface may admit

air to some extent to sustain their faint respiration. * • • "In those portions of Ceylon where the country is flat, and small tanks are extremely numerous, the natives in the hotseason are accustomed to dig: in the mud for fish. Mr. Whiting, the chief civil officer of the eastern province, infOrms- me that; on two occasions; he was present accidentally when the villagers were so-engaged; once at the tank• of Mulliativoe, within a few miles of Heftier, near the bay of Trincomalie, and again at a tank. be- teireen Ellendetorre. and. Arnetivo, on the bank of the Virgid river. The clay was firm, but moist, and as the men flung out.lumns of it with a spade,. it fell to pieces; disclosing.fish from nine to twelve inches long, which were full grown and healthy, and jumped on the bank when exposed to the sun. light."

Sir Emerson proves from several" modern soientific authorities that the same thing takes place in. othentropical regione„ subject to,vicissitudes of drought and moisture;. he states.that in.Caylon. not only crocodiles. and fishes, but some of the fresh-water-mob- lusca an& aquatic.00leoptera' also become torpid ire the dry. season and, fortified by the opinion of JohnHunter, he conchides- that. e3stivation. is- a Phenomenon analogous to hybernatian..

"Dr...Tohn.Hunter has ventured the opinion that bybernation, although a result of cold, is not.its immediate conwqnence, but is attributable to that. deprivation of food and other essentials which extreme cold occasions, and against the recurrence of which nature makes a timely provision by a sus- pension of. her functions. Excessive heat in the tropics produces an effect upon animals and vegetables analogous to that of excessive cold in northern regions,,and hence it is -reasonable to su se that the torporinduced.by the ens may be but the counterpart of the ybernatioa which results from the other.. The frost which imprisons the alligator' in the Mississippi as-effiie- Wally cuts him_ off-from food and action as the drought' wilibh incarcerates the crocodile ill the sun-burnt clay of Ceylon tank. The hedgehog of Eu-

rope enters on a period of absolute torpidity as soon as the inclemency of winter deprives it of its ordinary supply of slugs and insects ; and the tenree of Madagasoar, its tropical representative, exhibits the same ten.

period when excessive heat produces in that climate a like result.. . . Exceptions serve to prove the aoouraey of Hunter's opinion almost as strikingly as aocordances, since the same genera of animals which. hibernate in Europe, where extreme cold disarranges their economy, evince no symptoms of lethargy in the tropics, provided their food be not diminished

by the heat. • • • " To the fish in the detached tanks and pools when the heat, by exhaust- ing the water, deprives them at once of motion and sustenanee, the prac- tical effect must be the same as when the frost of a northern winter encases them in ice. Nor is it difficult to believe that they can successfully un- dergo the one crisis when we know beyond question that they may survive the other."