Note 1 — Chapter I
Reading edition
: The Asiatic Annual Register for 1799 contains the following:—
"Extract from a letter from Colombo, dated 26th Oct. 1798.
"A discovery has been lately made here of a very rich mine of quicksilver, about six miles from this place. The appearances are very promising, for a handful of the earth on the surface will, by being washed, produce the value of a rupee. A guard is set over it, and accounts sent express to the Madras Government."—P. 53. See also PERCIVAL'S Ceylon, p. 539.
JOINVILLE, in a MS, essay on The Geology of Ceylon, now in the library of the East India Company, says that near Trincomalie there is "un sable noir, composé de détriments de trappe et de cristaux de fer, dans lequel on trouve par le lavage beaucoup de mercure."