134 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1890. 



a book you find the second leaf before the first, or the third before 

 the second. Though, digging through the chalk, you may, in some 

 places, reach at once the old red sand-stone, without passing through 

 the intervening coal, just as, in turning the leaves of a book, you may 

 find the third leaf next after the first, if the second has been 

 omitted by the binder. 



Then, you know that from beneath this solid crust a mass of 

 molten rock here and there finds a vent in volcanic outbursts, and 

 streams over the surface in lava flows. Of these we shall have more 

 to say in discussing the origin of Prehistoric Bombay. 



But first I will ask you to take a glance at Bombay as she is. 

 Standing on the rocky cliff, near the flagstaff where the English 

 mails are signalled, on the east face of Cumballa Hill, near the 

 north end of the ridge, you get, on a clear day, a fine view of 

 almost the whole island, and see that it is roughly not unlike my left 

 hand held towards you with the thumb and forefinger extended, and 

 the other fingers closed. The forefinger is then the eastern side of 

 the island, ending southward in the longer prominence of Colaba, 

 while the shorter ridge to the west, ending southward in Malabar 

 Point, is represented by the thumb. The space between them is 

 Back Bay, while the Flats extend over my wrist to where the island 

 ends at Sion on the east and Worli on the west, about a third of the 

 way up my forearm. 



Now look back along the ridge near the north end of which you 

 are standing. You see it rises precipitously from the sea at the 

 south end at Malabar Point, whence it gradually reaches an elevation 

 of about 200 feet, and, with the exception of the depression through 

 which the road passes from the Gowalia Tank to Breach Candy, it 

 runs almost continuously for about 3 miles, till it ends precipitously 

 to the north at Mahaluxumi. On the other side of the Vellard, it 

 rises again at Love Grove, but is again breached by the depression 

 at the Pumping Station, through which the main drain flows out. 

 On the other side of this, it rises again in the Worli ridge, which 

 ends precipitously to the north in the inlet of the sea at Mahim Bay, 

 the south shore of which forms the sands, so well known to eques- 

 trians, marking the northern limit of our island on the west. 



North of the bay, however, the rocky ridge rises again at Bandora, 



