. Ceylon : an account of the island, physical, historical, and topographical with notices of its natural history, antiquities and productions. Natural history. 44 PHYSICAL GEOGEAniY. [Part tering Palks Bay to tlie north of Ceylon ; bnt the main stream keeping invariably to the east of the island, runs with a velocity of from one and a half to two miles an hour, and after passing the Great Bass, it keeps its course seaward. At other times, after the monsoon has spent its violence, the current is weak, and follows the hue of the land to the Avestward as far as Point-de- Galle, or even to Col
. Ceylon : an account of the island, physical, historical, and topographical with notices of its natural history, antiquities and productions. Natural history. 44 PHYSICAL GEOGEAniY. [Part tering Palks Bay to tlie north of Ceylon ; bnt the main stream keeping invariably to the east of the island, runs with a velocity of from one and a half to two miles an hour, and after passing the Great Bass, it keeps its course seaward. At other times, after the monsoon has spent its violence, the current is weak, and follows the hue of the land to the Avestward as far as Point-de- Galle, or even to Colombo. In the south-west monsoon the current changes its direc- tion ; and, although it flows steadily to the northward, its action is very irregular and unequal till it reaches the Co- romandel coast, after passing Ceylon. Tliis is accounted for by the obstruction opposed by the headlands of Ceylon, which so intercept the stream that the current, which might otherwise set into the Gulf of Manaar, takes a south-easterly direction by Galle and Donedra Head.^ There being no lakes in Ceylon^, in the still waters of wliicli the rivers might clear themselves of the earthy matter swept along in their rapid course from the hills, they arrive at the beach laden with sand and alluvium, and at their junction with the ocean being met transversely by the gulf-streams, the sand and soil with which they are laden, instead of being carried out to sea, are heaped up in bars along the shores, and these, being augmented by similar deposits held in CURRENT IN THE MONSOON. ' For an accoimt of the ciuTents of Ceylon, see Horsbukgh's Direc- tions for Sailing to and from the JEast Indies, Sj-c, vol. i. p. 510, 530, 580; Keith Johnston's Physical Atlas, plate xiii. p. 50. ^ Pliny alludes to a lake in Ceylon of vast dimensions, but it is clear that his informants must have spoken of one of the huge tanks for the purpose of irrigation. Some of the Mappe-mondes of the Middle Ages place a lake in the
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