extent of some miles. The buildings which they once supported have long
since fallen, and the pillars now stand like tombstones over vanished
magnificence. Some buildings are still standing; among these are two
dagobas, huge monuments of bricks, formerly covered with white cement,
and elaborately decorated with different devices. These are shaped like
an egg that has been cut nearly in half, and then placed upon its base;
but the cement has perished, and they are mounds of jungle and rank
grass which has overgrown them, although the large dagoba is upwards of
a hundred feet high.

A curious temple, formed on the imperishable principle of excavating in
the solid rock, is in perfect preservation, and is still used by the
natives as a place of worship: this is presided over by a priest. Three
large images of Bhudda, carved out of solid rock, occupy the positions
in which he is always represented; that in the recumbent posture is
fifty-six feet long, cut from one stone.

I was strolling through these ruins when I suddenly saw a spotted doe
feeding among the upright pillars before mentioned. I was within twenty
yards of her before she was aware of my vicinity, and I bagged her by a
shot with a double-barrelled gun. At the report of the gun a herd of
about thirty deer, which were concealed amongst the ruins, rushed close
by me, and I bagged another doe with the remaining barrel.

The whole of this country must at one time have been densely populated;
perhaps this very density may have produced pestilence, which swept away
the inhabitants. The city has been in ruins for about 600 years, and was
founded about 300 years B.C. Some idea of the former extent of the
Ceylon antiquities may be formed from the present size of the ruins.
Those of Anarajapoora are sixteen miles square, comprising a surface of