Not a tree is
to be seen except the low brushwood which is scantily
distributed upon its surface. We emerge suddenly from the
forest-covered mountains of Newera Ellia, and, from a lofty point
on the high road to Badulla, we look down upon the splendid
panorama stretched like a waving sea beneath our feet. The road
upon which we stand is scarped out of the mountain's side. The
forest has ceased, dying off gradually into isolated patches and
long ribbon-like strips on the sides of the mountain, upon which
rich grass is growing, in vivid contrast to the rank and coarse
herbage of Newera Ellia, distant only five miles from the point
upon which we stand.
Descending until we reach Wilson's Plain, nine miles from Newera
Ellia, we arrive in the district of Ouva, much like the Sussex
Downs as any place to which it can be compared.
This district comprises about six hundred square miles, and forms
the fourth and last ledge of the high lands of Ceylon. Passes
from the mountains which form the wall-like boundaries of this
table-land descend to the low country in various directions.
The whole of the Ouva district upon the one side, and of the
Kotmalee district on the other side, of tilt Newera Ellia range
of mountains, are, with the exception of the immediate
neighborhood of Kandy and Colombo, the most populous districts of
Ceylon.
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