A Visit to Ceylon ... Translated by Clara Bell

Front matter

BY THE SAME AUTHOR. Uniform with this Volume. THE HISTORY OP CREATION; or, the Development of the Earth and its Inhabitants by the Action of Natural Causes. A Popular Exposition of the Doctrine of Evolution in general, and that of Darwin, Goethe, and Lamarck in particular. Revised Translation by Professor E. Ray Lankester, M.A., F.R.S. 2 vols. Third Edition. Wich Coloured Plates and Genealogical Trees of the various groups of both Plants and Animals. Price 32s. THE EVOLUTION OP MAN. A Popular Exposition of the Principal Points of Human Ontogeny and Phylogeny. 2 vols. With numerous Illustrations. Price 32s. FREEDOM IN SCIENCE AND TEACHING. AVith a Prefatory Note by T. H. Huxley, F.R.S. Crown 8vo. Price 5s. London : Kegan Paul, Trench & Co. BY EENST HAECKEL PROFESSOR IN THE UNIVERSITY OF JENA AUTHOR OF "IHE HISTORY oi CREATION," " THE HISTORY OF THE EVOLUTION OF MAN," ETC. TEANSLATED BY CLAEA BELL LONDON KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH & CO., 1, PATERNOSTER SQUARE (All rights reserved.) PAGE 1 42 73 03 CONTENTS.

Chapter I. En Route For India

A naturalist's voyage to India — From Jena to Trieste — The good ship Helios — From Trieste vid Brindisi to Port Said — The heat in the Bed Sea — Aden — Medusæ in the Indian Ocean .. .

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 Valukeshwar — Fakirs — Elephanta— Tropical vegetation— An excursion to the Dekhan— The Palmyra palm — Temple-cave of Karli

Chapter III. Colombo

Arrival iu Ceylon — Cinghalese canoes — The town and suburbs — Indian gardens — The population of Ceylon

Chapter IV

" WHIST BUNGALOW." Mutwal — The history ofthe bungalow — Mangrove thickets — The garden of •' Whist Bungalow " — The museum at Colombo — Precautions against the tropical climate — Indian meals VI CONTENTS. IMGF 111 12G 114 149 17:; 101

Chapter IX

point de galle. The Tarshish of the East — Queen's House — Mr. Scott — The native town— Caplain Bay ley's buDgalow — The doom palm — Buona Vista — The coral banks of GaUe— The predominance of green hues in Ceylon — Divers — Life among the coral reefs

Chapter X. Belligam

Daybreak in the tropics — A drive across country — A solemn reception by the natives — The headmen — The rest-house — Socrates and Ganymede— Rodiya caste — The cook and AVilliam CONTENTS. VII PAGE 200 22C 24G 250 207 274

Chapter XI

A ZOOLOGICAL LABORATORY IN CEYLON. My domestic arrangements and difficulties — The canoe — Aretshi Abayavira — Fishing near Belligam — Native curiosity — Insects and other foes . . .

Chapter XII. Six Weeks Among The Cinghalese

Plan of a day at Belligam — Curry and rice — Various fruits — Fish- Roast monkey — Disturbed nights — Coloured prints for barter — A Buddhist festival — Christmas feast at the Wesleyan Mission housp — The cremation of a Buddhist priest ...

Chapter XVIII. At The World's End

llorton's Plain — The patenas— The primæval forest— Nilloo junglo — Horton's Plain rest-house — Prairie burning — The inhabitants of the wilderness — The ravine at World's End — Wild elephants — Nonpareil — Tree-ferns ... ... ... ... ... ... .'iOU

Chapter XIX. The Black River

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

Chapter XX. Home Through Egypt

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

Chapter I. En Route For India

"What ! Really, 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 Avith less " circumstance " and danger than, a hundred years since, attended the muchdreaded " 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 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 marA'ellous variety of form, compared to Avhich 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 primæval forests of India and Brazil ; and when, somewhat later, Humboldt's "Aspects of Nature,"* Schleiden's " Plant Life,"f 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 Plant : translated by A. Henfrey. Lond. 1848. % Yegetations-Ausichten. Wiesbaden, 1854. 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-Ave 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 aA'ocation 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 Muller, 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 Muller himself had directed my attention in Heligoland, in 1854 — led me in the course of the next twenty years to A'isit the most dissimilar shores of Europe. In the preface to my work on the Medusæ, 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 draAvings. But still the varied shores of the 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 liA-ed 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 with a mass of interesting zoological and botanical experiences to the quiet little town of Jena. But, only a few weeks later, accident threAV into my hands — not for the first time — the beautiful work on Ceylon, by Ransonnet, -fthe Viennese painter, and my recollections 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, 1 875. t Ceylon, Skizzen seiner Bewohner, Thier-und Pflauz-Leben. Braunsch weig, 1808. 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, via 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 Red 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 here, 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 the errand ducal government of Weimar.

In order to qualify niseis 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." f I also looked through a number of travellers 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 various arts which I deemed might prove especially useful aud desirable on this journey — such as oil painting, photography, 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 apparatus. 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 moie 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. ii. -f London, 1800. 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 Avith different sizes of shot. Most of these fourteen cases were covered with tin and soldered doAvn 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 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 influential 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, 1 took the opportunity of a short visit to Berlin to discuss my approaching journey to Ceylon Avith 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 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 doctrine 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 " Ignorabimur et restringamur," to which I had re torted, " Impavidi 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 discoA^ery in the Indian ocean ; it is still left to another and a more fortunatr 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 would 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 of my scheme, accorded me their warmest sympathy and did all in their power to encourage and promote it. Foremost of these I must name Charles Darwin and Dr. Paul Rotten burg, of Glasgow ; Sir Wyville Thomson and John Murray, of Edinburgh ; Professor Eduard Suess, of Vienna ; Baron von Konigsbrunn, of Gratz ; Heinrich Krauseneck, and Captain Radonetz (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 ofthe objects of my journey, and especially to his Royal Highness the Grand Duke Carl Alexander of Saxe Weimar, Rector magnificentissimws of the University of Jena, and to the prince his son.

By their kind offices 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 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 conjured 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 kalk 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 Domburg.

I registered a solemn promise to my old and beloved mountain friends, that I would return in spring, in good health and loaded with treasures from India ; and they, in ratification, sent me back a morning greeting, for even as we swept past their feet, the haze rolled away from their heads and sides before my eyes, and the victorious sun 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 deAvdrops tAvinkled 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, Gudin, 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 floAvery 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 few weeks, that dream would be realized in tangible actuality !

At Gratz, where I spent a day, I found capital accommodation 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 Avild, 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, hke 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, Red 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 to be given for judging of them. On the other hand, 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 Avhole, I believe that all judicious and unpretentious travellers, particularly the young, Avill 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 residing there, Baron Hermann von Konigsbrunn. 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 thereof 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 Avas of course most welcome. I myself could have no better 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 isle, in 1853, in the society of Captain von Friedan and Professor Schmarda, of Vienna. The professor has given a full account of his residence in the island in his "Voyage round the World." Unfortunately 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 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 them before King Frederick William IV., spoke of them in terms of the highest praise.