150 NATURAL HISTORY. 



happened to the valleys of the Kundlika and the Man gaum K£l. The 

 line of disruption has never been exactly traced ; but it is suggested 

 that some clue to it may be obtained from the hot springs ; and in 

 that case it probably begins near Mhad, and runs through the valley 

 of Mangaum and the very curious little defile of Ratwad, the 

 Sukeli Pass, and the salt marshes east of the harbour ; then 

 between the Parsik and Matheran Hills, and past Bhiwandi to Akloti on 

 the Tansa River. 



This however is all mere conjecture at present ; and the main 

 importance of the great break off to our subject is that it left us not 

 a single lake in a country that was once probably a " lake region," and 

 gave us instead estuaries in which the salt water often gets 30 miles 

 from the sea. In some places on these creeks the mountains close in 

 on the channel, and these defiles are often very picturesque. 



But generally there is more or less flat salt marsh on one or both 

 banks of each creek, sometimes reclaimed and converted into salt rice- 

 land or salt-pans, but often covered with a dense growth of mangrove 

 bushes, which grow to 25 or 30 feet high. The reclaimed lands are 

 irredeemably ugly during eight months of the year ; the mangrove 

 swamps and islands, on the other hand, are very pretty at a distance 

 or when the tide is in. At low water they are not pleasant neighbours 

 from the heavy smell and hideous appearance of the bare mud about 

 their roots, pierced by innumerable spiky and leafless suckers. The 

 trees are not always true mangroves (Rhizophorea?) ; indeed these 

 are comparatively rare to the north of Bombay, but more abundant 

 as you go down the coast southwards. The native name for them is 

 Kandelj and they are easily distinguished by their strange flying 

 buttress-like roots, glossy foliage, and flowers sometimes conspicuous 

 and sweet-scented. Of this order, we have species of Rhizophora, 

 Ceriops, Kandelia, and Bruguiera, and of others the " Tiwar" (Avi- 

 cennia tomentosa) and u Surund" (Excwcaxia agallocha)^ both of 

 which are useful forage plants, " Phungali" (Exccecaria majus), with 

 white flowers, and the strange " Marendi," or " Creek Holly," for 

 which I have only a very old botanical name, Acanthus ilicifolius^ 

 probably superseded in late works. 



The leaf is exactly like that of the common English Holly, and is 

 sometimes used as a substitute for it in Christmas decorations, the 

 berries being made up for the purpose of red beads cunningly tied on 

 with wire. The flower is pale blue, rather conspicuous, with a super- 

 ficial resemblance to that of a sweet pea. On embankments and 



