Volcanoes in the Bajf of Benyab. 343 



There are four large volcanoes in Cheduba, detached 

 iiioiinds, rather than cones, varying from 100 to 1000 feet 

 above the level of the sea. They are composed of stiflf gray 

 day, with large quantities of irregular fragments of stone ; 

 their sides are much cut up with rain, their summits, which 

 are from 50 to 240 yards in diameter, are quite bare.* On 

 the summits of these are numerous well-formed cones, from 

 a few inches to 4 feet in height, and about the same in dia- 

 meter. On the outside they are hard ; within they are filled 

 up with thick, uniform, well-mixed mud, which every now and 

 then runs out at the side, or over the edge, of the crater, 

 bubbles of gas rising at intervals of three or four minutes. 

 There is no appearance of eruption of lava or scoriae. Some 

 of the volcanoes throw out hot water in place of mud ; they 

 are most active during the rains, and then occasionally emit 

 flame and stones, as well as mud, throwing these to a consi- 

 derable height ; the stones are obviously torn from the 

 beds through which the water passes ; portions of copper 

 occasionally adhered to them. Petroleum wells abound 

 here as they do all round the neighbourhood. Captain 

 Halsted visited Cheduba in 1841, and his survey in the Childes 

 extended above 100 miles along the shore. The shore is 

 marked by three well-defined terraces, or raised beaches, 

 covered with coral and shells, and manifestly the result of 

 three distinct upheavals, with considerable intervals, — of just 

 a century,the natives believe, — betwixt them. The uppermost 

 of these is less conspicuous and distinct than the two lower, 

 but on the western coast a remarkable column of rock stands 

 out on the beach, about 40 feet high, with oyster-shells still 

 attaching to it, shewing the second line of beach, just 13 

 feet above the first. The last of these was said by an old 



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•eifdilJ;... ,r-"u;ij,.ifj;,;/I lUul'nT - r Jd v.'i v 



May 1618, by which 2000 lives and 60 vessels are said to have been lost at 

 liombay. See Madr. Lit. Trans., 1837, alneady quoted fV<Mii ** Soma's Portu^ 

 gueso India," tome iii. I'j' -"*»d f>3 ^'^^'<=- ^^^ eijsie auoHu/ t« ■- 



* Abridged from Captain Halsted Vtl^^rt on the'Mkliabf Cheduba. Bl. 

 A8. Trans., 1841, vol. x., p. 434. Captain Ilnlsted gives maps of the islands of 

 Cheduba, and Kegwan, adjoining to it. The latter is copied into Johnston's 

 Physical Atlas, Map 3. 



