Adam's Peak. ར ར བང * ལ ༼ག 1.A ༽ `, "The mountains of this glorious land Like giants, looking through the sky While one by one, as star by star J. MONTGOMERY. CHAPTER III. THE SAMANALA PEAK.-RATNAPURA ROYAL MAIL.-PANABAK KERY.-KELANI.-BUDDHIST TEMPLES.-KADUWELA.-HANGWELLA. RIVER SCENERY.-AWISSA'WELA. THE shrine-crowned Samanala is distant in a direct line. from Colombo, the Maritime Capital of Ceylon, about 46 miles, and rises to a height of 7352 8 feet above the level of the sea; where, in clear weather, it has been seen at a distance of thirty leagues. It forms the crowning point of * 459 from the Clock tower, Colombo. It is stated in the Rajawalia, that Wijaya, the Indian invader and first king of Ceylon, made for the island [B. c. 543] in consequence of seeing from his ship the large rock called Samanta-kúța, whereupon he L the south-western range of the mountain zone,* and was for a long time considered the highest, as it certainly is the most conspicuous mountain in the Island. Although not often visible during the southwest monsoon, (May to November), it is generally, during the intervening months, more or less distinctly seen from Chilaw on the northwest to Dondrahead on the south coast, a distance of one hundred and fifty and his followers concluded amongst themselves that the country would be a good one to reside in, and accordingly they bore up for it, and landed at Tammenna Nuwara, on the northwest coast. Mohammad Ibn Batuta, in the narrative of his travels, mentions that being driven from the Maldives, he "arrived at last at the Island of Ceylon, a place well known, and in which is situated the mountain of Serendib. This appeared to us like a pillar of smoke, when we were at a distance of nine days from it." "On carrying the eye onwards to the landward horizon, it is seen to be bounded by a noble mountain range, between thirty and forty miles distant, culminating, if the voyager has made the Island near Point-deGalle, in a conical summit named the Haycock, which in general effect may be compared with the Schehallion in Scotland, as seen from the East; and if he make the coast nearer Colombo, in Adam's Peak,—a summit so eminent, that I do not remember to have seen anything that will bear comparison with it, except perhaps Monte Viso, in the Maritime Alps, as seen in the western horizon by the traveller when descending towards Turin."-Rev. Dr. MACVICAR on the Geology, Scenery and Soil of Ceylon. Appendix to Ceylon Almanac, 1854, p. 26. It is, in fact, the fourth in altitude. Pędurutalágala, the highest, springing from the Nuwara Eliya plains, being 8,295 feet above the sea level. The others are Kirigalpotta, 7,836-8, and Toṭapella, 7,720 feet in height. miles. On the western coast, the low lying champaign region of which reaches from the sea almost to the mountain's base, the range from which it springs forms a magnificent purpletinted back-ground. The Peak, there lifted high in lonely grandeur, and shrouded at intervals from sight by the mists that rise from the surrounding valleys, or by the low clouds drifting in the monsoon wind, has been associated by the fervid imaginations of Oriental races with legends of the most romantic kind. With some of these, and with descriptions of the mountain, the writer was familiar in early life; and when his lot was cast in Ceylon, he determined, if possible, to make the ascent to the "Srí-páda,"-the Sacred Footprint, and thencefrom see what the intrepid blind traveller Holman, who visited it in 1830,* described in graphic terms *The first Englishman who ascended Adam's Peak was Lieut. MALCOLM of the 1st Ceylon Rifle Regiment, who reached the summit on the 27th April, 1827. The account of his ascent will be found in Appendix C. Lieut. HOLMAN, R. N. in the 3rd volume of his Travels Round the World, p. 228, thus writes: -"We reached the summit just before the sun began to break, and a splendid scene opened upon us. The insulated mountain rising up into a peaked cone of 7,420 feet above the level of the sea, flanked on one side by lofty ranges, and on the other by a champaign country stretching to the shore that formed the margin of an immense expanse of ocean. I could not see this sight with the visua orbs, but I turned towards it with indescribable enthusiasm. I stood upon the summit of the Peak; and felt all its beauties rushing into my very heart of hearts." On his return from the Peak Holman mentions that his servant purchased a fowl from a native for 3d. In 1870 the bazaar charge at the same place for a very middling sized fowl was 1s. 3d. |