WATERS OF WESTERN INDIA. 157 



other spots, raised ever so little above the marshes, we find the Chikhli 

 (Salvador a indica), which so much resembles its relation, Salvadora 

 persica, that one is surprised to find, apparently, a characteristic 

 desert plant in so damp a situation. The fruit is of a much deeper 

 and duller colour than in S. persica. For most of the description of 

 these trees I am indebted to a report by Mr. Ebden, C.S. 



As the estuaries near the sea, the salt marshes give way to clean 

 sandy beaches in long bays, separated by promontories of trap-rock, 

 and these beaches are generally backed by groves of cocoanut and 

 other palms. The embouchure has almost always a steep and hilly 

 shore on one side (usually the south), and on the other a wide flat strand 

 prolonged into a dangerous bar. Those of Bankot and Chaul are good 

 examples. The smaller rivers which rise in the coast-ranges that run 

 parallel to the Ghats are miniatures of the larger streams that I have 

 described ; but several of them debouch in the central part of flat 

 plains, as, for instance, at Alibag and Warsoli. The plain here seems 

 to have been once the bed of one of the lakes referred to above, the 

 outer margin of which is still indicated by a line of reefs, of which 

 Kennery Island and the Chaul Kadu Rock are the most elevated 

 points. Subsequent to the immersion of most of the lake-bed in the 

 sea, much of it has been reclaimed by the formation of sand dunes, 

 orioinally backed by lagoons uhich have gradually become salt 

 marshes. At this point the industry of man has stepped in to aid 

 nature, and the sand dunes have become cocoanut gardens ; while the 

 marshes, embanked so as to keep out the sea tides and retain the 

 silt washed down from the hills, have become, first, salt rice-lands, 

 and afterwards, as the silt accumulates to above spring-tide levels, 

 capable of growing the superior rices which cannot endure even 

 brackish water. 



Wherever these reclamations have been made in creeks and back- 

 waters, the mangrove swamps are of the greatest importance as 

 protecting the water side of the embankments and furnishing 

 materials for the repair of breaches. On the open coast, where the 

 mangroves cannot face the surf, this function is performed by sand 

 dunes formed by wind and wave. The total area of these reclaimed 

 lands is very great, and their formation has within historic times 

 greatly changed the face of the Konkan waters, and must have 

 seriously modified their population, especially the Avifauna. 



To seaward, immediately north and south of Bombay, that is 

 from Dharavi to the Chaul Kadu Reef, the group of reefs, banks, and 



