The next morning we had an early breakfast and started, the
village people marching off in good spirits with the loads. I was
now en route for Bertram's patinas, which lay exactly over the
mountain on the opposite side of the river. This being
perpendicular, I was obliged to make a great circuit by keeping
the old Newera Ellia path along the river for two or three miles,
and then, turning off at right angles, I knew an old native trace
over the ridge. Altogether, it was a round of about six miles,
although the patinas were not a mile from the cave in a straight
line.
The path in fact terminates upon the high peak, exactly opposite
the cave, looking down upon my hunting-ground of the day before,
and on the other side the ridge lie Bertram's patinas.
The extreme point of the ridge which I had now gained forms one
end of a horse -shoe or amphitheatre; the other extremity is
formed by a high mountain exactly opposite at about two miles'
distance. The bend of the horse-shoe forms a circuit of about
six miles, the rim of which is a wall of precipices and steep
patina mountains, which are about six or seven hundred feet above
the basin or the bottom of the amphitheatre. The tops of the
mountains are covered with good open forest, and ribbon-like
strips descend to the base.
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