1835.] Geology of the Bombay Islands. 335 



shore here is bounded by rocks, as at Elephanta, of the 

 amygdaloidal species. The shingle consists of bivalve 

 shells (Area granosa) and waterworn porphyritic gravel. 

 The ascent of the lesser Caranja hill is gradual and easy 

 from the village to the summit of the ridge. The rocks 

 have an inclination to the east and west, as if shelving 

 down on each side of the ridge, presenting the appearance 

 of stratification, or successive deposition, and are covered 

 with low jungle of carissa, ixora, euphorbia, and lawsonia. 

 The descent on the west leads to paddy ground, where there 

 is another village, surrounded with neat gardens, and sup- 

 plied with a tank, fifteen or twenty feet in depth, dug out of 

 the solid rock, with a wheel and earthen pots to raise the 

 water, as is usual in the east. In this valley there is a fine 

 specimen of the Adansonia digitata, sporting a colossal 

 trunk, and spreading out its branches to overshadow the 

 circumjacent cultivated ground. # To reach the top of the 

 ridge it is necessary to cross several mountain streams, 

 whose beds are dry except during the rainy season. The 

 rocks are all amygdaloid, on the western as on the eastern 

 declivity, filled with zeolites, &c. and are well exposed in 

 the streamlets, sometimes rising in the form of round 

 masses, at other times shelving out and affording a level 

 run for the water, and then terminating in a small per- 

 pendicular fall at the edge of the rock. 



On the eastern side, in this manner, a very picturesque 

 waterfall is formed, the height of the vertical face of the 

 rock being at least twenty feet, over which the whole 

 water of the torrent is precipitated in one sheet, presenting 

 altogether with the rich foliage of the tamarind in the 

 foreground, a pretty scene. Near this a specimen of meso- 

 lite was obtained, among innumerable minerals, which may 

 be observed scattered about on the surface of the island, 

 very frequently covered with a blue coating, produced by 

 the presence of iron. Besides mesolite I observed calce- 

 dony, agates, rock-crystal, calcareous spar, and heulandite. 



The south-east point of the small hill consists of craggy 

 rocks of porphyry, affording, in their numerous recesses, 



* In this valley I found a specimen of the Agaricus campestris, the identical 

 English ketchup mushroom, of the existence of which plant, in this part of India, 

 at such a slight elevation above the sea, I have never previously heard. 



