BOOKS.

BLEER''S. WA.NDBEINGE IN CEYLON.* A. ratuinT objeet of this work seems to be to call attention to the capabilities of Ceylon for the investment of British capital, and. to censure the official routine and mismanagement which neutralizethe natural advantages of the island.. The form of the book, however, is &narrative of Mr. Baker's experiences as an agricultural settler in the lofty and temperate region of the Newera Ellia, and.an ac- count of the soil, climate, and productions of Ceylon, as well as of the natives, as-gathered in continual excursions. To these topics are-added a description of the ancient ruins of the island, some judicious speculations as to the means by which the prosperity and population of particular districts were destroyed, interspersed with sporting remarks and adventures; sporting adventures being really the means by which Mr. Baker gathered his varied informa, tion.

It is not with us to defend Colonial Governors or the Colonial, Office. Land in Ceylon not only seems high-priced at twenty shillings an acre, but in many oases it would be dear at a gift if the- recipient were compelled to- cultivate. It is likely that a repair of the ancient irrigating tanks, by which rice-cultivation would. become possible, might draw the natives to the spot, increase-the means of the people, the wealth of the country, and after a time its population. At all events, there would be no harm in trying en- experiment in. the most promising place, as Mr. Baker suggests.. Roads, we dare say, are wanting throughout the country ; but along some leading lines very good roads, we believe, already exist ; and it would hardly answer for Government to make par-- ticular roads to private settlements in order that the colonist might convey his produce along them, especially when not only roads but markets seem a ,desideratum.

"Rome was not built in a day." All modern colonial history shows that colonization is a rough matter, where hardship and. par- tier failures prepare the way for general success. Late experience would-seem to indicate that colonies must grow, rather than be created ; whether it is that the people who plan: and form colonies are deficient in forethought and power of combination, or whether, as seems most likely, unforeseen- obstacles and mere accidents con- tinually arise to mar the best-prepared schemes. Our author's own Story urn.case in point.

" Some nine years ago, after twelve months' sporting in Ceylon, Mr. Baker was prostrated by a jungle fever, and ordered to Newera- Ella on the first appearance of convalescence. Such was the efficacy of the change of climate that the invalid was well in a fortnight, in spite. of a " dirty and uncomfortable" inn or rest- house, where nothing was to be had but tough steaks, black bread, and potatoes. Baker, himself again, looked about him, perhaps with the. feeling of universal kindness and aptitude for receiving pleasure which Crabbe attributes to the grateful hospital patient taking his first walk. "The mountains were' clothed from the base to the summit with dense forests, containing excellent timber for building purposes. Good building-stone was procurable every- where:" Struck with these obvious advantages, the appearance of the soil, the surface of the. country—" undulating grassy knolls" and silver streams winding, along—the observer grew enthusiastic. "Wiry," he exclaims, "why should not the highlands-of Ceylon be reamed from their state of barrenness.? Why should not the plains be drained, the forests felled, and cultivation take the place of the rank pasturage, and supplies be produced to make Ceylon independent of other countries ?" This idea- haunted him. con- tinually, even on hiereturn to England. At last he determined to found a settlement at Newera Ellis, en grand seigneur.

" Accordingly, I purohasectan extensive tract of land from-the Government at twenty shiihngs. per acre. I engaged an excellent bailiff, who with his -wife and daughter, with nine other emigrants, including a blacksmith, were to sail-for my intended settlement in Ceylon.

"I purchased farming-implements of the most improved descriptions, seeds *tall kinds,- saw-mills, &e. 8sc. and the following steak—a half-bred bull, n:L

_urbaand Hereford) a well-bred Durham cow, three rams, (a.Southdown, ' ter, and. Cotswold) and a thorough-bred entire horse by Charles xu ; also a small pack, of foxhounds, and a favourite greyhound "My brother had 'determined to accompany me ; and with emigrants,. stock, machinery, hounds, arid our respective families, the good ship-.Earl of Hardwick, belonging to Messrs. Green and Co., sailed from London in September 1848."

All went pleasantly enough while "living on the spend." Bu- siness-developed the difference between practice and speculation. A. drunken- groom, in: driving the carriage and. pair up the hills, sent bah over a precipice, smashing the coach and killing the. horses. A short-tithe afterwards, the same individual rode & valuable and docile elephant to death. The well-bred Durham cow, in spite of slow and careful driving, "fell dangerously ill" at Amberpusse, and died.. The emigrants became troublesome, in fact mutinous : they "'openly defied" the authority of the bailiff. Luckily, Mr. Baker was in a country so advanced in civilization as to have a gaol, whither two of thenr were sent as an example to the others. "This produced the desired effect, and we shortly got regularly to work."' The work, however, turned.ont to, be dear.

"There were now about a hundred and fifty natives employed-in the tedi- ous process of exterminating jungle and forest, not felling, but regularly digging' out every tree and root, then piling • and burning the mass, and levelling the cleared land in a state to receive the plough. This was very expensive--work, amounting to about 301. per acre. The-root of a large- tree would frequently occupy throe men a couple of daysin its extraction, which attire rate of wages, at one shilling per diem, was very costly. The land * Eight Years' Wanderings in Ceylon. By S. W. Baker, Esq., Author of "the Bifle and the Bound in Ceylon." Published by Longman and Co. thus °leered was a lightsandy loam about eighteen inches in depth,. with.a.. gravel subsoil; and was considered to be far superior to the patina.(ernatural grass land) soil, which was in appearance black loam on the highergrowidt and of a peaty nature in. the swamps.

" The bailiff (Mr. Fowler) was of opinion that the patina soil was the best; therefore, while the large native force was engaged in sweeping the forest from the surface, operations were commenced according to agricultural rules- upon the patinas."

Thirty pounds per acre, inaddition to the one pound for the. fee- simple, and the percentage proportion- on the capital expended in getting the party from England to the highlands of Newera Ellin, made the first cost- of land, which when cleared had to be re- claimed, rather expensive. Bu.t there was that interest of reclaim- ing the wilderness which is either inherent in human nature, or is infused into English human nature by Robinson Crusoe. There was a further interest by the- novel power- brought to bear on the cultivation.

"It was an interesting. sight to see the rough plain-yielding to the-power of agricultural implements, especially as some. of those implements were drawn by animals not generally seen in plough harness at home. "The.' cultivator,' whioh was-sufficiently large to- anchor any twenty of the small native bullocks, lookeda.merenothing behind the splendid elephant who worked it, and it cut through.the wiry roots of the rank turf as eland° peels an apple. It was amuaiegto see this same elephant doing tha•work.of three separate teams when the seed was in the ground. She tint drew a pair of heavy: harrows.;, attached to these and following behind were.a pair of light harrows. ' and behind these came a roller. Thua,the land had its first and second harrowing and rolling at the same time. "This elephant was particularly sagacious; and her farming work being completed, she was employed in making a dam across the stream. She was a very large animal, and it was beautiful to witness her wonderful sagacity in carrying and arranging the heavy timber required. The rough trunks of trees from the lately felled, forest were lying within fifty yards of the spot; . and the trunks required foe, the dam were. about fifteen feet long and four- teen to eighteen inches in diameter. These she carried in her mouth, shift, lug her hold along, the log before. she raised it until she had obtained the exact balance; then, steadying it with her trunk, she carried everrlog to. the spot, and laid them across the stream in parallel-rows. These eho her-- self arranged under the direction of her driver, with. the reason, apparently, of a-human being. "The most extraordinary part of her performance was the arranging of two immense logs of red keener (one of the heaviest -woods). These were about eighteen feet long and two feet in diameter, and they were intended to lie on either bank of the stream parallel to the brook and the edge. These she placed with the greatest cane in their exact positions,- unassisted by any one. She rolled them gently over with her head.; then. with one foot, and keeping her trunk on the opposite side of the Mg, she checked its way whenever its own momentum would have carried' it into the stream.. AltliouglrIthought the work admirably done, she did-not seem quite satisfied, and.ahepresently got into the stream and gave onerend of the log,an extra push with her head; which completed.her task,, the two trees lying exactly parallel to each other, close to the.edge of either bank."

The above-named troubles only applied to getting the crops in the ground.. When they were up, other difficulties arose.

"No sooner were the oats a few inches above ground than they were sub-, jected.to the nocturnal visits of elk and hogs, in such numbers that they were almost wholly destroyed. "A crop of potatoes of about • three acres on the newly-cleared forest land was totally devoured by grubs. The bull and stock were nearly-starved on the miserable pasturage of the country ; and no sooner had the clover sprung up in the new clearings than the Southdown ram got hove& upon it and died. The two remaining rams, not having been accustomed tomuell high living since their arrival at Newera Ellis, got pugnacious upon the clover, and in a pitched battle the Leioester ram killed the Cotswold—and remained solus. An epidemic appeared among the cattle, and twenty•six fine bullocks died withm. a few days; five Australian horses died during the first year ; and everything seemed to be going into the next world as fast as

possible. • •

"I had made the discovery; that without manure nothing would,. thrive. This had been a great diaappointment, as much difficulty lay-in procuring the necessary item.

"Had the natural pasturage been good, it would soon have been an easy matter to procure any amount of manure by a corresponding number of cattle; but as it happened, the. natural pasturage was so bad that no beast could thrive upon-it. Thus, everything, even grass-land, had to be manured; and, fortunately, a cargo of guano having arrived in the island, we were en- abled to lax-down some good closer and seeds.

" The original idea of cultivation driving the forests from the neighbour, hood of Newera Ellie was therefore. dispelled. Every acre of land must be manured ; and upon ielarge scale at Newera Ellis that is impossible. With manure, everything will, thrive to perfection with the exception,of wheat There is neither lime nor magnesia in the soil.. An abundanoa of , silks throws a good crop of straw, but the grain is wanting : Indian corn will not form grain, from the same cause. On the other hand, peas, beans, turnips, carrots, cabbages, &o., produce crops as- heavy as those of England. Pots- toes,,being the staple article of production; are principally cultivated, as the price of 201. per ton yields a large profit."

Such were some of the first troubles of' a, settler en grand, even in an "Italian climate." Smaller people, however, did, well—at Mr. Baker's expense; all the emigrants were thriving, but not in his employ. In the, tropical climate of the lowlands- there is little of tropical fertility. This is the general resume of the soil of Ceylon.. "Cinnamon thrives-', but why 2—it delights, in a soil of qgartz sand,, in which nothing else will grow.

"Cocoa-nut trees flourish for the same reason ; sea-air, a sandy soil, and a dry subsoil, are all that the cocoa-nut requires.. "On the otherhand, those tropical productions. which require a. strong soil invariably prove failures, and sugar, cotton,, indigo, hemp, and tobacco, cannot possibly be cultivated with success:.

"Even on the alluvial soil upon the banks of rivers, sugar does not pay the proprietor. The only sugar-estate in the island that can ke its head above water is the Peredema estate, within-four miles of Kandy. This, again; lies upon the bank,of the Mahawelli river, and it has also the advantage,of a home market for its produce, as it supplies the interior of Ceylon at4he rate of 23...per hundredweight upon the spot. "Any person who thoroughly understands the practical cultivation-of the sugar-cane can tell the quality of sugar that will be produced by an exami- nation-of the soil, ram thoroughly convinced that no soil in Ceylon, will produce a sample of fine-straw-coloured, dry, bright, large-crystalled saga& The finest sample ever produced of Ceylon sugar a dull grey, and always

moist; requiring a very large proportion of lime in the manufacture, with-

out which it could neither be cleansed nor crystallized. * * • "Indigo is indigenous to Ceylon ; but it is of an inferior quality, and an experiment made in its cultivation was a total failure.

" In fact, nothing will permanently succeed in Ceylon soil without abund- ance of manure, with the exception of cinnamon and cocoa-nuts. Even the native gardens will not produce a tolerable sample of the common sweet po- tato without manure; a positive proof of the general poverty of the soil. * • • "Can any man, when describing the 'fertility' of Ceylon, be aware that newly-cleared forest-land will only produce one crop of the miserable grain called korrakan ? Can be understand why the greater portion of Ceylon is covered by dense thorny jungles ?—It is simply this, that the land is so des- perately poor that it will only produce one crop, and thus an immense acre- age is required for the support of a few inhabitants : thus, from ages past up to the present time, the natives have been continually felling fresh forest and deserting the last clearing, which has accordingly grown into a dense thorny jungle, forming what are termed the Chenars' of Ceylon."

The bottom lands of valleys, especially where rivers flow, have a certain degree of fertility ; but that is the case everywhere. In such sites in Ceylon, however, there is a tropical climate with tropical diseases.

"There are several rivers in Ceylon whose banks would produce good cot- ton and tobacco, especially those in the districts of Hambantotte and Bat- ticaloa; such as the Wallawe, the Yalle river, the Koombookanaar, &c. ; but even here the good soil is very limited, lying on either bank for only a quarter of a mile in width. In addition to this, the unhealthiness of the climate is so great that I am convinced no European constitution could withstand it. Even the natives are decimated at certain seasons by the moat virulent fevers and dysentery. " These diseases generally prevail to the greatest extent during the dry sea- son. This district is particularly subject to severe droughts ; months pass away without a drop of rain or a cloud upon the sky. Every pool and tank is dried up ; the rivers forsake their banks and a trifling stream trickles over the sandy bed. Thus all the rotten wood, dead leaves, and putrid vegetation brought down by the torrent during the wet season, are left upon the dried bed to infect the air with miasma.

"This deadly climate would be an insurmountable obstacle to the success of estates. Even could managers be found to brave the danger, one season of sickness and death among the coolies would give the estate a name which would deprive it of all future supplies of labour."

This subject might be pursued further ; for Mr. Baker touches upon every artificial and almost every natural product of the island, whether vegetable or mineral. What has been quoted is enough to show, that however sluggish the Ceylon Government may be, activity would hardly attract settlers; or if it did, it is doubtful whether the settlers would thank the active Government when they got there. The antiquities of Ceylon are the wonder of all who see them, standing as they do the gigantic memorials of a people whose his- tory has almost perished. Upon this subject we think the work of Major Forbes is yet the best for the general reader, though Mr. Baker gives a graphic account of some of the ruins. He has a speculation on the subject of their decline, which is curious. The ruins of the great works for irrigation show that the existence of so large a population depended upon the supply of water. If this oould be cut off, famine would ensue.

"In those days, the Kings of Ceylon were perpetually at war with each other. The Queen of the South, from the great city of Mahagam in the Hambantotte district, made constant war with the Kings of Pollanarua. They again made war with the Arabs and Malabars, who had invaded the Northern districts of Ceylon ; and as in modern warfare the great art con- sists in cutting off the enemy's supplies, so in those days the first and most decisive blow to be inflicted was the cutting off the water.' Thus, by sim- ply turning the course of a river which supplied a principal tank, not only would that tank lose its supply, but the whole of the connected chain of lakes dependent upon the principal would in like manner be deprived of water. "This being the case, the first summer or dry season would lay waste the country. I have myself seen the Lake of /ilinneria, which is twenty-two miles in circumference, evaporate to the small dimensions of four miles cir- cuit during a dry season. "A population of some millions wholly dependent upon the supply of rice for their existence would be thrown into sudden starvation by the withdrawal of the water. Thus have the nations died out like a fire for lack of fuel."

In addition to sporting adventures, and practical advice to sportsmen, there will be found in Mr. Baker's volume various ob- servations on animals, that exhibit the acumen of the naturalist, and some speculations on vegetation, malaria, and the causes of disease, that denote the natural philosopher. It is an interesting book, with a good deal of practical information.