JOURNAL 



OF THE 



BOMBAY 



literal Hisiflrg ^0xttcf u. 



No. 4. BOMBAY, OCTOBER 1886. Vol. I. 



WATERS OF WESTERN INDIA. 



Part II. — Konkan and Coast. 

 (By a Member of the Society.} 



The region of the present paper is included, roughly speaking, 

 between the 16th and 21st degrees of North Latitude and between 

 the watershed of the Sahyadri Range, with an average elevation of 

 about 3,000 feet (rising in places to 4,500) and the outer line of sound- 

 ings, where they increase suddenly, though very irregularly, at 

 a distance of about 60 nautical miles from the coast. 



The mountains, the coast, and the line of deep water are pretty 

 nearly parallel, running from south-east to north-west, with a slight 

 westerly divergence in the coast-line and a more marked one in 

 that of soundings. 



The whole region forms the face of the Deecan trap area, descend- 

 ing westwards into the ocean by a series of the terraces or steps 

 which characterize this formation and have given it its name 

 (trappa=step in Swedish or Danish). 



Fresh and salt water are so much mixed up in parts of this region 

 that it is convenient to take the whole together in rough notes like 

 the present. 



Between the crest of the Sahyadris and the edge of the series of 

 cliffs which form most of their western face is a narrow hio-bland 

 zone called the " Konkan- Gha't-Mata'," or " Konkan on the top of the 

 ghats." "Mats'" in Maratha means the top of anything, from a skull 

 to a mountain, whence, for instance, Materan (" The juDgle on the 

 hill-top"'). 



The longest torrent of the Konkan- Gha't-Mata is probably the 

 Kumbhe nullah, with a course of five miles ; and I suppose that the 

 little tank at Khandala is its largest sheet of standing water. The 

 torrents, which are very numerous, generally contain wafer here and 



