clothing than our usual walking dress. The gale, which swept over us, soon forming a white coverlet of snow-drift, protected us from the blast, less than an hour's exposure to the inclemency and intensity of cold of which would inevitably have ended in our destruction: not even the dogs would have survived it. The thermometer that night fell to 32° below zero, or 64° below the freezing point. The fog clearing off sufficiently to make out the land, about four o'clock in the morning we started again, and reached the ship without having incurred even a frost-bite."

Dr. M'Cormick, before returning home, proposed to explore Smith Sound of Baffin's Bay, the crew of his whale-boat having again volunteered to be his travelling party; a proposition which Sir Edward Belcher declined. The discovery of a passage between Melville and Baring Islands, and Jones's Sound, has given an importance to Smith Sound, which is sure to lead to its thorough exploration sooner or later; one tires, therefore, in constantly finding offers such as Dr. M'Cormick's declined, promising a great result at a trifling outlay. It is the weak point in the history of Polar discovery, the shoal upon which nearly all commanders of expeditions have wrecked themselves.

Sir Edward Belcher discovered an expanse of islet-covered sea, named by him Northumberland Sound, to the north of Wellington Channel, where he wintered. He found the Wellington Channel communicated not only with the Polar Sea, but with Jones's Sound; and finding no traces of Sir John Franklin, returned to Beechey Island. When the despatches left Beechey Island, Commander M'Clintock had not returned from his search north-west of Melville Island. To this officer, as well as to others, who we know have not been idle during the winter that has passed, we may yet look for some tidings of our lost countrymen in October next.

EXTRACTS FROM THE JOURNALS OF THE LATE MAJOR EDWARD MACREADY.

(Continued from page 520, No. 309.)

as

AT Openake, among other visitants, I noticed a very fine-looking blackguard, a fakeer on pilgrimage, as he said, to Kattragam. He was an up-country Hindostani man, and contrasted finely, as he stood, looking like a mahogany prince, and bawling out his begging chant with the dauntless effrontery of a privileged mendicant, with the diminutive and servile natives that flocked round him. These latter, low caste men, disgust one as they crouch and crawl away, if they felt overwhelmed and terrified at your presence-it is offensive to see anything of a man do such degradations. I would make them acknowledge, one and all, the superior qualities of those, be they high or low, who lord it over them; but this should be done manfully and gracefully. By the way, this worm-imitating fashion seemed more vernacular in Suffragam, where a civilian reigns, than in the more lately-subjugated provinces above, where I only remarked it once,

when a Coolie, detected in imposition, slunk away from before the wrath of Douglas, in a manner extremely appropriate to such a rascal. I would make them respectful, not abject; but I am forgetting my fakeer. I turned from him, after casting a glance over his model of a figure, half angry-an arrogant priest and impudent Leggar, are anomalies that I cannot tolerate with patience, and in this instance the less, as associated in a fellow who looked as if he could lead an army. Sir John told me to tip him, and I threw him a shilling, like a good soldier who subjects himself to discipline."

The road "had been washed, just washed in a shower," when, at half-past one, we started for Dinewake. These things are risks, under a vertical sun, which sometimes cost the life, health, or reason of a man. Motives alone that dignify, can justify such exposure; when unnecessary, it is unwise towards one's self, and unkind towards one's people and cattle. Luckily, the sun was only out for moments, and we did our eight miles comfortably. The country was pretty, and the mountains towered boldly on the right; wherever the ground admitted of it, cultivation, chiefly of flax, was general; and towards Dine wake, a sheet of brilliant green, of several square miles, wound between the mountains. We were met on the road by the Dolaswelle Dissave, who showed us, about a mile or two from the rest-house, a Vihari he was building; it was the best we had seen, and the more curious, as evincing that taste was making inroads on Boodhoism: the Saviour was quite losing the African lip, and though the curled hair was extant, the expression of the face could hardly have been more happily calm. It almost recommends the state of absolute abstraction or annihilation, in which the supremest of all their heavenly joys consists. The thing does old Dolas great credit, and he requires something to propitiate one, for he is a sad old proser, with his eternal and harsh "Yeh! Yeh!" His nephew, the Basnike Nilame, of the Aleutmura-dewalē, is a delicate young fellow, made for a woman, and finished off as a man by mistake.

Dinewake is in the midst of hills, with a lofty one in front of the Bungalow. It rained heavily all night, but we were very snug, thanks to old Dolas. He had not, however, half the taste of the Mahawalatanē man. As we are now about to take leave of these rustic accommodations, it is as well to say, we had great reason to be obliged to them. As to the cloths which the washerwoman brings to stand for tapestry and carpeting, they might occasionally be cleaner; but the arches and avenues which ushered us over the better class of bridges, and to our temporary homes, could hardly be more tasteful. The delicate hue and texture of the cocoa-nut leaf and flower have a lightness, and the various shapes in which they are turned an elegance, that is really charming; and all that could otherwise have been unsightly near us, was hidden by piazzas or hanging of this delightful material, nor was the consciousness that I was the attaché of a person of importance allowed to slumber, even on the road. All the way, mile after mile, over hill and through valley, a clean and widened path bounded on each side by shreds of the cocoa leaf hanging from withies, supported every twelve feet by uprights, so as to form eternal festoons-at once the

"decus et tutamen" of the road-waved in honour of the General as he passed; crowds came out to see our cavalcade; and, in spite of all Cardinal Wolsey says, I think "the pomp and glory of the world," at least in Ceylon, very pleasant things, excepting always and everywhere, by day or night, or under any circumstances whatever, the accursed tom-tomery; and perhaps I might be inclined, in making this single exception, to throw old Dolas into the bargain, by way of giving weight to it.

Most horrible roads through a highly cultivated country, crossing the Dinewake river about a dozen times (a fine stream it is), and descending, gradually, almost all the way, with mountains on one side, running to Adams' Peak, and hills on the other-all fine in their way -brought us to the river, the Kaloogunga, or Black river, so called from its depth of shade. We came nearly so far in chairs (not a bad make-shift), which old Dolas recommended and rigged out. The river was deep, and our horses-especially mine-made a bad landing; he kicked me on the calf of one leg, and trampled on the instep of the other, and altogether I felt much dissatisfied with him, the Kaloogunga, the boatmen, the collector, and, in short, with things in general; but we mounted, and as the tom-toms commenced, the rain came down rejoicing as the poets say-at least I know I rejoiced, as Sir John started off; and sticking the mummeries into the kubur of old Vanderstaten, I mad the tom-major or tom-fool who led the band, scud out of the way; and in ten minutes, we pulled up at the domicile of the collector of Ratnapore. It is 13 miles by book.

Ratnapore is prettily situated in the valley of the Kaloogunga, which a neat little fort commands. From its proximity to the Peak, and its being shut up in hills, it is subject to frequent rain; and though said not to be 60 feet above the sea, it is cool and healthy. The men in the fort are never sick, even when there is fever in the bazaar below them. S- seems a good-natured fellow, which his wife does not; but she keeps clean linen, and airs it, and as the use of that article formed the most interesting incident of our intercourse, we had no great reason to complain. We left next morning in a covered boat, with eight rowers and a helmsman, and made Caltura in about ten hours and three quarters. The banks are in general jungle, with here and there a rushy plain; and, at the beginning and during the latter half of our descent, frequent buildings. There were few objects to attract attention; the chief were the variety of creepers, the Saffragam Dewale, the fine hill of Kinella Kamdē, seen down a long vista of the river, the two rapids Panegalle-ella and Narang-alle-ella, for we passed the longest, Kola-pota-ella, unnoticed from the fulness of the stream; the Dewale rocks, the stones on both sides of a broad part of the river, on which the impression of a dog's feet was visible as pointed out by the boatmen, who told us the legend of the stag and dog leaping it long ago, when stags leaped 50 yards and dogs would follow them. These, with two or three fine reaches of the river, a little food, and a few cigars, formed the objects of our discussion till we landed at Caltura about seven, and, getting into the buggy, found ourselves at Kew before eleven o'clock on the day month from that on which we had left it.

I felt unwell in December, 1831, and had a touch or two of ague. Quinine, I fancy, disagrees with me; and, having uttered some words about change of air, Sir John, at Colonel Vavasour's request, allowed me to run away from duty and dinners for a week. As the Colonel had settled that we were to go to Kandy, I proposed going up the Ambagam pass and coming down the old road to Ruanwelle, and thence to Colombo, down the Calang-Gunga. To this he assented, and on the afternoon of the 19th we rode to Hangwelle (eighteen miles). The road, the old Kandian, is very good, but liable to be flooded in places to eight feet deep from the river which runs near it, opening many pretty picturesque domestic views. The houses are chiefly built on little raised terraces, with ditches round them, and all surrounded by cocoa or areca-nut trees, which, with other trees, form an agreeable shade for the greater part of the way. Just beyond Cadowella (nine miles) we enter on jungle; and near Hangwelle single isolated wooded hills break the uniformity or rather level (for there is an endless variety in the distribution of these cottage scenes) of the country. The square fort of Hangwelle, which is a comfortable rest-house, was celebrated in 1804 for the defeat of the Kandian army by a company or two of our people. It commands the river, and has a deep ditch crossed by a draw-bridge.

Next morning we rode to Airsavelle, through a very swampy jungly country, ascending and descending the hills, which now became frequent. The distance is twelve miles, and the jungle, in places, a forest. It was very cool when we started, and we had a beautiful view of the mountains-the Peak overtopping all-with wreaths of mist along their sides and summits. There is to me an inexpressible beauty in the fresh look and feel of these tropic mornings, as they open out from the darkness and the fogs, the charmingly varied loveliness of our prodigal vegetable world: one cannot but love them, though one knows the danger that is identified with their beauty. The rest-house of Airsavelle is on a raised spot among wooded rocks, some of them a thousand feet high. The road to Ruanwelle, over which our afternoon ride passed (eight miles), is not so good as what we had hitherto come, but of far more varied beauty.

Within a mile of Airsavelle we crossed the Sittawacka ferry, famous for a king's residence and many battles in the days of Portuguese warfare in the island. The latter part of the Ruanwelle winds between unconnected mountains. The priest in his yellow robes, as he stood on a rock looking at our array, added considerably to the picturesque ensemble of the scene. I saw some large well carved cornice stones banking up a field beyond the Sittawacka, and could trace the site of buildings of considerable size. Law met us at an ugly nullah, and walked with us to the ferry of the Calany, over which we passed close to its junction with the Gooroo-good-oya, and ascended to the fort. It is a square, with two bastions at opposite angles, and a broken curtain. The ditch is deep, and the buildings were once good, but are all going to decay, under the melancholy system which built palaces and tunnels with the limited resources of a struggling country. The carriage of the only gun is almost decayed, and that of its comrade howitzer

actually in fragments. A heavy fog wraps Ruanwelle in the morning, and the high wooded hills rising from a level, with rivers almost round it, would lead one to suppose it unhealthy, but it is not so. Law's hospitality had kept us up late, and it was seven next morning before we sallied from the fort, Law accompanying us with a posse of his people. I think it good sixteen miles to Tallugamma, which we reached about ten o'clock. The road leads through a beautiful country, full of every variety of rock, river, valley, village, mountain, and torrent; and altogether it was not so bad as I expected, though some bits are infernal, and miles of it such as might dissatisfy a man who had not already traversed the roads of this island, and came with the expectation that this was the worst of them. The first part, to Yatteenatta (four-and-a-half miles), to which point the river is always navigable, was through a populous and cultivated valley, beyond which, after crossing the Wayoya, it became wild; and the torrent of the Baliakeedah-ella, below Pavoule, not two miles farther, comes magnificently down its bed of enormous rocks, between two finely-wooded walls of mountain crag and jungle; a bit of the road close to the waterfall is very breakleggish for unsteady horses. About two miles farther, the Elipeoya falls into the Calany at Nawalla, between which place and Tallugamma (eight miles), the road through that stream passing often up its bed, and crossing it no less than eighteen times.

The

It is impossible to remember the numerous interesting spots encountered on this march, or to forget the short, but steep, ascent of the Polgeta-ella, especially if it is mounted under a grilling sun. Amllam of Ganepoli is the last we pass before reaching Tallugamma, where the Calany is still a noble tranquil stream, full forty yards in breadth, and is commonly navigable to this point. Our hut was charmingly situated on the right bank, in a garden where three elephants had taken their dessert the previous evening, and looking across the glossy stream, and its sweetly wooded banks, up the steep ascent of the gigantic Ballabella Kande. On our left, the mountains swept away, rising higher and higher in their black forest garb, till they reached their maximum of 3,000 and 4,000 feet at about six or seven miles away. This country, the lower Bulatgammē, is said to be much infested with elephants; and the numerous strong fences we had to remove, delayed us sadly in our progress. We saw none; but their traces all up the Elisse-oya were constant, and most of the low jungle was of the reedy rush bamboo, of which they are so fond. Our people were up so late, that it was considered too much for them to go on till next morning; when we left Tallugamma at a quarter past six, and reached Ambagam on the Mahavilla-Gunga at a quarter past eleven. There are bits of the road, amounting, perhaps, together to three miles, pretty good; but the rest (which I think nine) is really bad, and, of course, fagging to a man, and occasionally dangerous to his horse.

The descent to the Bibile-oya, which we crossed soon after starting, is rough-and this river, as well as the Gerankily-oya, must be very formidable obstacles after a little rain. They are from forty to fifty yards in breadth, and both of uncommon beauty. An hour's ride-I