The zircon family is richer in Ceylon than in any other part of the world. It is found in the districts of Matura and Saffragam, and is most abundant in the former. Matura diamond is the name applied to its finest varieties by the dealers in gems. Besides the two well-established species, common zircon and hyacinth, there is a third, massive, opaque, and uncrystallized, and of a (lark brown colour. Specimens of it from Saffragam weigh two or three ounces. The yellow varieties of zircon are sold by the natives as a peculiar kind of topaz,—the green as tourmalines, the hyacinth red as inferior rubies, and the very light grey as imperfect diamonds. All the varieties are found in the beds of rivers, or in alluvial ground, which, both in Saffragam and Matura, is of the same kind.
For the ruby, Ceylon has been long celebrated. Four species of it, viz. spinell, sapphire, corundum, and chrysoberyl occur. In gneiss or granitic rock, spinell is comparatively rare.
Ceylon has many animals—elephants, buffaloes, elk, spotted deer, the red or paddy field deer, mouse deer, the hog, bear, leopards, hares, black partridge, red-legged partridge, pea-fowl, jungle fowl, quail, snipe, ducks, widgeon, teal, golden and other kinds of plover, a great variety of pigeons, innumerable snakes, and the crocodile ; but it is free of the tiger, wolf, hyiena, and cheeta.
Elephants are now only found in the thickly wooded, forests. In one mode of snaring them, called atmaido,' or hand snaring, ropes of hide, with a noose, are slipped by the hunters over the hind foot of the animal, and immediately fastened to a tree; the animal, moving on, stumbles and falls, on which other hunters immediately twist other ropes about the legs in a figure of 8, and a shed is erected for its protection until sufficiently Lamed to be removed. The solitary, must, or rogue elephant is called horaalia in Ceylon. The height of a full-grown Ceylon elephant varies from to 10 feet. The tusks vary in length from 3 to 7 feet, and their weights range from 30 to 120 lbs.; but 60 or 70 lbs. are the average. Upwards of 320 species of birds have been indicated by Dr. Templeton, Dr. Kelaart, and Mr. Layard. Of the fish, the Cybium guttatum, one of the scomberoid fishes, known to Europeans as the seir fish, is the best ; but mackerel, carp, mullet, red and striped perches and a sardine (Sardinella Neohowii) are used.—Prod. F. Zeyl.; Tennent's Ceylon; Forbes' Ceylon; Baker's Rifle; Cunningham, ,Inc. Geog. of India ; Yule, Cothay, i. p. elxxvi. ; Madras Mail, Jan. 31, 1873 ; Time; Dee. 27, 1873 ; Davy's Travels in Ceylon. See Architecture.