Ceylon: An Account of the Island Physical, Volume 1

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Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1860 - Natural history - 4 pages
 

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Page 519 - And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither; so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building.
Page 304 - ... and fallen leaves on the edge of a native path, poised erect, and preparing for their attack on man and horse. On descrying their prey they advance rapidly by semi-circular strides, fixing one end firmly and arching the other forwards, till by successive advances they can lay hold of the traveller's foot, when they disengage themselves from the ground and ascend his dress in search of an aperture to enter.
Page 165 - Sir James Emerson Tennent, also, in his work on Ceylon, says that ' in some of the unfrequented portions of the eastern province, to which Europeans rarely resort, and where the peafowl are unmolested by the natives, their number is so extraordinary that, regarded as game, it ceases to be " sport " to destroy them ; and their cries at early morning are so tumultuous and incessant as to banish sleep, and amount to an actual inconvenience.
Page 3 - Ceylon, from -whatever direction it is approached, unfolds a scene of loveliness and grandeur unsurpassed, if it be rivalled, by any land in the universe.
Page 151 - Caballaya, but usually known by its Malay name of Pengoli/n, ', a word indicative of its faculty, when, alarmed, of " rolling itself up " into a compact ball, by bending its head towards its stomach, arching its back into a circle, and securing all by a powerful fold of its mail-covered tail. The...
Page 171 - One of these ingenious marauders, after vainly attitudinizing in front of a chained watchdog which was lazily gnawing a bone, and after fruitlessly endeavouring to divert his attention by dancing before him, with head awry and eye askance, at length flew away for a moment, and returned bringing with it a companion, who perched itself on a branch a few yards in the rear. The crow's grimaces were now actively renewed, but with no better...
Page 106 - Tennent says, in his work on Ceylon : ' I have seen a specimen 250 feet long, and an inch in diameter, without a single irregularity, and no appearance of foliage other than the bunch of feathery leaves at the extremity.
Page 142 - Anxious to gain a height in time to avail myself of the clear atmosphere of sunrise for my observations, I started off by myself through the jungle, leaving orders for the men with my surveying instruments to follow my track by the notches which I cut in the bark of the trees. On leaving the plain, I...
Page 186 - Geckoe had been taught to come daily to the dinnertable, and always made its appearance along with the dessert. The family were absent for some months, during which the house underwent extensive repairs, the roof having been raised, the walls stuccoed, and ceilings whitened.
Page 200 - Cerastes without fear or hesitation, impunity is ascribed to the use of a plant with the juice of which they anoint themselves before touching the reptile ' ; and Bruce says of the people of Sennar, that they acquire exemption from the fatal consequences of the bite by chewing a particular root, and washing themselves with an infusion of certain plants. He adds that a portion of this root was given him, with a view to test its efficacy in his own person, but that he had not sufficient resolution...

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