49 



did I see a few large Rhizo&tomas (called by the natives sori^= 

 nettles), floating over the reef or washed on shore. Phos- 

 phorescence, too, I have never seen well marked in the Grulf 

 of Manaar, the sight of an occasional luminous flash from a 

 pelagic crustacean being the poor reward of night vigils. 



The island of Rdmesvaram, which is visited during the 

 course of the year by enormous numbers of Hindu pilgrims 

 to the celebrated temple, is separated from the mainland by 

 the Pdmban Pass, which connects Palk's Strait with the 

 north end of the Gulf of Manaar, and is 1,350 yards in width.^ 

 The depths in the channel range from 10^ to 15 feet at low 

 water, but it shoals up very suddenly on both sides, so that 

 great care is necessary in navigating vessels through. On 

 the west side of the pass is the great dam, consisting of 

 large masses of sandstone, all having a more or less flat 

 siu'face, and which formerly were part of a causeway extend- 

 ing from Edmesvaram Island across to the mainland. The 

 remains of this causeway are still visible on the main road 

 from Pdmban to the town of Edmesvaram. 



According to the folk-lore of the Hindus, the so-called 

 bridge, which formerly connected Rdmesvaram Island with 

 Ceylon, was built by an army of monkeys when Rdma made 

 war against Edvana, who had carried off his wife Sita to the 

 island of Lanka (Ceylon), and as Mr. Bruce Foote observes -.^ 



" The series of large flat blocks of sandstone so strongly 

 resemble a series of gigantic stepping-stones, that it is impos- 

 sible to wonder at the imagination of the author or (in analogy 

 with the Homeric epos) authors of the Eamayana that the rocky 

 ridge was really an old causeway of human construction." 



In connection with the building of the reef a story goes 

 to the effect that the common South Indian squirrel (Sciurus 

 palmarum) used to help the monkeys by rolling in the sand 

 on the shore, so as to collect it in its thick hairy coat, and 

 then depositing it between the piled up stones, so as to 

 cement them together. At which service Rdma was so 



1 The following account of the Pamlmn Pass is mainly based on Extracts 

 from Hydrographic notice, derived from survey and remarks furnished by 

 Mr. Morris Chapman, Assistant Superintendent, Marine Survey of India,, 

 1878. 



2 Mem. GeoL Surv., Ind., vol. XX, 1883. 



a 



