Chap. VIT.] ADAM'S BKIDGE. 553 



could pass, was but thirty-five yards wide, witli a max- 

 imum depth of httle more than six feet of water. ^ 

 Lately, this passage has been so enlarged and improved, 

 that vessels di^awing ten feet may venture through it 

 in safety. On the east side, the white houses of the 

 village of Paumbam hue the beach, nestling beneath 

 groves of coco-nut palms and arboi'escent mimosas, 

 and on the west the low hue of the Indian coast 

 approaches so close, that the passage of the steamer 

 disturbed the sea-birds which were feeding in the rij^ple 

 of the waves upon the shore. 



Turning eastward at Paumbam, on our Avay towards 

 Manaar and Aripo, Ave kept as close as the shallows 

 rendered prudent, to the long hne of sandy embank- 

 ments, which form the barrier of Adam's Bridge. The 

 (composition of this singular reef has been akeady 

 alluded to^, and recent examinations have sliown that, 

 instead of being a remnant of the original rock, by 

 Avhich Ceylon is supposed to have been once connected 

 with the Indian continent, it is in realit}' a compara- 

 tively recent ridge of conglomerate and sandstone^, 

 covered with alluvial deposits, carried by the currents 

 and heaped up at this particular point, whilst the 

 gradual rising of the coast has contributed to give the 

 reef its present altitude.'* 



^ BALD.T:rs relates the improbable 

 story, tliat in 10."»7 tifteen Portuguese 

 frigates, ehased by the Duteli cruisers, 

 escapeil through the passage of 

 Paiuubaui ; a circumstance which he 

 accounts for by the still more un- 

 likely conjecture, that the natives in 

 charge of tlie channel had the power 

 of adjusting the depth of the water 



which last has more the appearance 

 of indurated gravel than rock.*" — 

 Major Sim's Repoti mi Adaiii'.t 

 Ih-'uhje, 1828 ; see Capt. Stewakt's 

 llepoH to the Governor of C'ci/loti, 

 1887. 



* The Dutch, although they 

 adopted the popular themy that 

 Ceylon had been separated from 



by " either bmng in or removing India by a sudden convulsion, enter 

 certain stones from the entrance." — tained doubts of the primary fm-ma 

 1'. 700. tiou of Adam's Bridge, and ^'AhEX- 



- See Vol. I. Pt. I. ch. i. p. 1.5, 20. 



^ "It appears to be sandstone of a 

 soft description, and generally in an 

 advanced stage of decav. It is hardest 

 at the surface, and lic'conies softer 



and coarser towards llie Itodnni. 218 



TYX suggests that its origin is refer- 

 able to the deposit of sand at the 

 point where the currents meet at 

 the change of the monsoons. — 0ml 

 Nleuw Oost-Indien, ch. xv. p. 



