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CEYLON OUTRIGGERS

145

Cingalese, the untidy but useful cocoa-nut trees growing down to the water edge, backed by dense jungle such as Sir Samuel Baker loved when he described his experiences in his wild sport book of "The Rifle and the Hound" in Ceylon.

The fauna and flora of Ceylon have an immense range, from wild elephants in the former, and in the latter to the magnificent "Talipot " palm when in flower as the last grand flicker of vegetable life, for thus its grandeur culminates in beauty at its death. A visit to Kandy shows the wonders of this botanical paradise, for wild elephant sport can only be obtained at its best farther north.

CINGALESE COASTING VESSEL.

THIS vessel, when I pictured her, was lying in Colombo harbour, a perfect blaze of colour in the strong sunlight. She was painted red, and the reflection in the water was beautiful and bright, the whole toned down by the dense vegetation on shore in the background. She was a true Mohammedan, from the decoration round her gunwale, backed by the appearance of the crew on board.

The dhow character is shown by the main-halyard block, which always looks so unwieldy, whilst the anchors are stowed in the bows, after the Chinese manner, but the mizen has a touch of European method about it by being a gaff sail and not a lateen like the mainsail; the standing bowsprit is also another feature, evidently suggesting an extra jib in favourable weather. A still greater innovation occurs in the presence of the outrigger to port; truly in ships and coasters we find strange mixtures of neighbouring countries most incongruously mixed up in the same craft. In this vessel we had a fine entrance with a counter and stern full and round like the "billyboys" on the east coast of England.

Another point is very noticeable-that the mast-head tapers and curves forward, like a Dutch pink coming to a point. Whatever her private life may have been, the sketch faithfully shows her external appearance as she lay in the harbour of Colombo, and the description given there was that she

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