192 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 
18. Adam’s Bridge (extract from ‘* The Face of the Earth,” by 
E. Suess, translated by Hertha B.C. Sollas, Oxford, 1904, vol. 2, pp. 
511-514).—Quite recent marine deposits....occur, even if only in 
widely separated patches, all around the Indian peninsula .... 
On Cape Comorin and beyond it .. the .. signs (of negative 
movement) .. are .. clearly visible. This region and Adam’s 
Bridge we will now consider in greater detail, in the case of 
Adam’s Bridge with the help of the observations of Foote, supple- 
mented by those of Christopher and Branfill, and by the ancient 
poems. * 
We meet here, at various levels, with horizontal beds of limestone 
and calcareous sandstone containing the shells of existing molluscan 
species. One of the most important areas is the Kudung Kudam 
plateau, situated a little to the north-east of Cape Comorin ; it is 
a tableland about three kilometers in length, surrounded by sand 
dunes, and reaching a height of 48°5 metres ; this is, so far as I know, 
the greatest height, as ascertained by measurement, at which these 
deposits occur in the south of the peninsula. Most of the patches 
by which they are represented occur at very inconsiderable heights, 
and Foote’s opinion that they were formed by a late phase of the 
negative movement finds support in the observations made in other 
places. Corals do not appear to occur in these deposits, but on the 
beach itself and on some of the adjacent islands the upper part of 
the coral reef lies high and dry, covered with sand and soil. _Pre- 
cisely similar coral reefs occur in some parts of the island of Ceylon. 
In the interior, says Richthofen, they are not exposed at the surface, 
but the inhabitants often open up quarries in the coral limestone 
beneath the fields. The north of Ceylon in particular is said to be 
entirely underlain by coral formations. 
A dead coral reef, according to Foote, forms the island of Rames- 
waram ; its surface reaches a height of at least 3 meters and pro- 
bably more. This island forms one of the points of attachment 
of that remarkable bar which is known as Adam’s Bridge. From 
the dune-covered coast of the peninsula the long mound proceeds 
first to the south side of the Rameswaram reef, and in this part of its 
course there occurs, near Paumben, an artificially widened channel 
which has long served as a passage for ships. So long agoas 1484 
(1480 ?) the canal is said to have been destroyed by a storm, as has 


* R. Bruce Foote, On the Geology of South Travancore, Rec. Geol. Surv., 
India, 1883, XVI., p. 30; On the Geology of the Madura and Tinnevelly 
District, Mem. Geol. Surv., India, 1883, XX., pp. 46 and 55-74, map ; Lieu- 
tenant Christopher, Accounts of Adam’s Bridge, Trans. Bombay Geogr. Soc., 
1846, VII., pp. 130-133; B. R. Branfill, Physiographical Notes on Tanjore, 
&c., Journ. Asiat. Soc., Bengal, 1878, XLVII., 2, p. 187. ° 
} F. von Richthofen, Bemerkungen uber Ceylon, Zeitschr. deutsch. geol. 
Ges., 1860, XIL., p. 529 ; also Schlagintweit, Reise in Indien und Hochasien, 
L., p. 147 (elevation of the whole of Hindustan). 
