1835.] Geology of the Bombay Islands. 303 



inscription on sandstone tablets, which must evidently have 

 been procured from a great distance. 



The words of the inscription are contracted, and are in 

 the Portuguese language. They relate to some individual 

 of the name of Aquias, probably a priest, as the word 

 sevserdros occurs ; and the dates of the 2d of April 1620, 

 and 28th November 1630 appear. 



Near it is situated a Mahometan garden, neatly laid out 

 in the English style, with grass walks, flower and vegetable 

 borders, and a variety of fruit trees. 



The ascent to the summit of the hill is rendered difficult, 

 by the abruptness of the declivity and the loose fragments 

 containing mesolite, chalcedony and quartz nodules, which 

 readily yield to pressure, and roll to the base of the hill. 

 The degradation of rocks cannot better be observed than in 

 this neighbourhood, where we see them comminuting, roll- 

 ing to the base and assisting in elevating the level of the 

 vallies, and diminishing the relative height of the hills, of 

 which a similarly striking illustration is afforded at the 

 north-west side of the Pyrenees . # The product of this 

 disintegration is well expressed by the German epithet, 

 geschiebe the ratchill of the miners, and must necessarily 

 constitute the most recent formation wherever it occurs. 



From the summit of the hill the prospect is very fine, 

 the east view being bounded by those extraordinary trap 

 mountains whose configuration is so well expressed by their 

 names, Funnel Hill, and the Queen of Mahratta's Castle, 

 with the connecting ridge of the Ghauts. While, to the 

 south, the harbour and islands of Bombay appear as if at 

 the feet, and to the north, the dull high land terminates 

 the prospect, the foreground being enlivened by the rich 

 foliage of the Tamarind (Tamarindus Indica) and lofty Pal- 

 myra, (Borassus flabelliformis) and the more humble, 

 though not less elegant jungle, consisting of the Ixora, 

 (Ixora coccinea) Euphorbia, (E. neriifolia), and Lawsonia, 

 (L. inermis.) 



On the north-eastern side of the strait which separates 

 Salsette from the continent, alow basaltic ridge extends for 

 four or five miles parallel with the ridge of Salsette, and 



* Link's Travels in Portugal, 8vo. 1801, p. 64. 



