Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1882-11-03
Professor Haeckel's Life in Ceylon.

Professor Haeckeps Life in Ceylon.
NV great resource as an article of
Diet was the fruit which abounded at
every meal Next to the bananas of
every variety, of which / consumed
several at every meal. my standing
dessert consisted of mangoes (fangite-
ra indtcd). egg-shaped green fruit, from
three to six inches long; their cream
like golden pulp has faint but distinct
aroma of turpentine. The fruit of the
pasSion-fower (pasSiforG) was very
pleasant to my taste, reminding me of
the goosoberry. 1 was less pleased
with the renowned custard-apple. the
AnnQ1aG SQuamosa, and with the Indian
almond, the hard nut of the Ierminalia
catdppG. There are singularly few APP
Piles and oranges in Ceylon; the latter
remain green, and are not juicy; but
want of cultivation is doubtless chiefly
answerable for the infcriority of this and
other fruits; the Singhalese are far too
easy-going to make any progress in
horticulture. Refreshed with my mod
est repast, l employed the hot hours of
mid day-from twelve to four o clock
in anatomical or microscopic work in
making observations and drawings, and
in the preservation and storing of nv
collected objects. The evening hours,
from four to six o'clock, were gen.
orally occupied with some lovely
country excursion; sometimes / made
water-color sketch, sometimes l
sought to perpetuate one of the
beautiful views in photography. Now
and then l shot apes and birds in the
woods, or collected insects and snailS,
or hunted among the coral reefs on the
shore, adding many curious objects to
my cole ton. Richly laden, l re-
turned to the Rest House an hour or
less before sunset, and worked for an
other hour at the preservation and ar
rangement of my specimens. At e CHIT
o'clock my second chief meal. or din
ner, was served. The piece de resist
dnce at this was again the inevitable
curry and rice. followed sometimes by
n fish or a crab, which l enjoyed i'm
mensely, and then by some dish COM
posed OF eggs or meal, and finishing
again with delicious fruit
The important question of 'what to
drink seemed likely at first to prove
a difficult one. The ordinary drinking
water of the low lands of Ceylon is
considered very bad and unwholesome,
the highlands, on the contrary, Icing
rich in springs of the purest and fresh
est water. The great rains which fall
daily on the island bring down a mass
of mineral and vegetable deposit into
the river, and the stagnant water of
the lagoOns is not unfrequently in COM
munication with them. 1t is not Gus
tomary to drink the water unless boiled
| or N Nxrit hn aH1
of claret or whisky. Nv friend Scott
had given me an abundant supply OF
the last-named beve age, but on the
re 'reshing, as wei as wholesome, as
the fresh milk of the cocoa-nut.
My frugal dinner at an end, / usually
took a solitary walk on the shore, or de-
lighted my eyes with the sight of the IL
Elimination of the palm woods by
myriads of fire-tlies and glow-worms.
Then l made Il few entries in my note
book or tried to read by the light of a
cocoa-nut oil lamp But l was gener-
ally quite tired enough to 90 to bed soon
after nine o clock, after another careful
shaking of the clothes for the expulsion
of scorpions and millipeds.
The great black scorpion (nearlv a
lou IOU8 Is So COiHulOu III NcylOu Illott
/ once collected half a dozen in the
course of an hour. Snakes exist also in
great Numbers. Slender green tree
snakes hang from almost every bough,
and at night the great rat-snake CORY
gai9don B!umenbachii) hunts rats and
mice over the roofs of the huts. AL
though they are harmless and their bite
not poisonous, it is by no means a
pleasant surprise when one ofthese rat
snakes. five feet long, suddenly drops
through hole in the roof into one s
room, occasionally alighting on the bed.
| On the whole, however, my nights in
BELGIAN were but little disturbed by
animal intruders. although was often
kept awake by the how ing of jackals
and the uncanny cry of the Devil-bird
Ga kind of owl, Su1mium Hadrani), and
other night birds. The bell-cry of the
pretty little tree-frog, which make their
dwelling in the cups of large flowers,
acted rather as slumber song. But
was far oftener kept awake by the whirl
of my own thoughts, by the recol &C.
ton of the many events of the past day,
and the anticipation of that which was
to come. A brilliant succession of love
Iy enes, of interesting observations,
and varied experiences mingled in my
brain with plans OF fresh enterprise and
new discoveries for the morrow
DeutSche RundSchau.