340 Dr. R. D. Thomson on the [May 



tuguese governor of India in 1522, among the native writ- 

 ings, that " Miliapore," seven leagues from " Paleacate," 

 the ruins of which were then on the sea shore, was sur- 

 rounded, according to tradition, 1500 years previous to that 

 date, by 3,300 stately churches, and that the site of that 

 most ancient city was distant twelve leagues from the sea. 

 We are also informed that " St. Thomas dragged out of the 

 sea an immense mass of timber, which all the force of ele- 

 phants and art of men could not move."* 



In the figure which we have given, it is evident that the 

 inclined plain at the land has been comparatively but re- 

 cently submersed, while the horizontal bed has been for a 

 longer period subjected to the action of the sea, as is evinced 

 by the layer of sand and shells. The whole of this hori- 

 zontal portion, likewise, we may decidedly conclude, was 

 inundated at the same period, for, after the sea had been 

 raised to the level of forty-five fathoms from the present 

 surface of the ocean, we can see no impediment to its laying 

 the whole plain, extending for at least a hundred miles of 

 longitude, completely under water. 



The Hindoos, on the Malabar coast, have a tradition that 

 the sea extended to the foot of the Ghauts. There does 

 not appear, however, evidence tending in any degree to 

 prove that such an occurrence has been of recent date ; but 

 we are rather disposed to consider the native account, as an 

 indistinct remnant of the almost universal tradition of a 

 deluge during the human era. 



The agencies of torrents appear of too trival a nature, to 

 afford a sufficient source of such an extensive submarine 

 formation, as that which we observe along the Concan and 

 Malabar coasts, although there can be no hesitation in 

 admitting that where considerable rivers do exist, the 

 debris collected by the force of their currents must prove a 

 serious obstacle to the encroachments of the ocean. But 

 at Bombay, where the bank is much broader than in 

 other parts of the coast, no remarkable accumulations occur 

 at the mouths of the rivers Pan well and Pen, whose 

 size, indeed, is sufficient to render such an occurrence ex- 

 tremely improbable, even if actual examination did not 

 demonstrate the fact to be as we have stated ; and the 



* Sousa's " Portugues Asia," torn. i. 270. 



