xxii Physical and Geoc/nostic Suggestions ^ 



dition were satisfied that the mountain was not an active vol- 

 cano, and that the columns of steam issued out of the ground 

 near the shore ! As yet, the phenomenon remains entirely 

 unexplained. 



If we examine any map of the Indian Ocean, we may 

 trace the continuation of the Sunda group from Sumatra, 

 N.W., through the Nicobar, and Great and Little Andaman 

 Islands, and thence through the volcanoes of Barren Island, 

 Narcondam and Cheduba, nearly parallel with the coasts of 

 Malacca and Tenasserim, all on the eastern part of the Bay 

 of Bengal. The minor volcanoes just enumerated will pre- 

 sent valuable opportunities of geological enquiry. 



Along the coasts of Orissa and Coromandel, the western 

 portion of the Bay of Bengal is quite free of islands, Ceylon, 

 like Madagascar presenting rather the type of a continent. 



Off the W. coast of the peninsula of India, (that is opposite 

 the Neilgherrie hills, and the coast of Canara and Malabar), 

 there is a series of three archipelagoes, extending from 14° N. 

 to 8" S., viz., the Laccadives, the Maldives, and the Chagos, 

 which appears, as it were, continued through the banks of 

 Sahia di Malha, and Cargados Carajos, to the volcanic group 

 of the Mascarenhas and Madagascar. As the first-named 

 archipelagoes, so far as is yet known, consist solely of coral, 

 and are, consequently, true "atolls," or reef-lagoons, the bottom 

 of the ocean should be examined over a large extent, adopt- 

 ing the ingenious hypothesis of Darwin, that it is to be con- 

 sidered as an area of subsidence, rather than an elevated 

 region. 



