Chap. I.] 



SAND FORMATION, 



47 



covered with vegetation ; herbaceous plants, shrubs, and 

 finally trees pecuhar to sahne soils make their ap- 



A misappreliension of this passage 

 has been achiiitted into the English 

 Aversion of the Vogayes of the two 

 3Iahometans which is published in 

 PiNKERTOX's Collections of Voyages 

 and Travels, vol. iii. ; the translator 

 having treated gobb as a term ap- 

 plicable to valleys in general. " Cey- 

 lon," he says, " contains valleys of 

 gi-eat lenglh, which extend to the 

 sea, and here travellers repair for 

 two months or more, in which one is 

 called Gobb Serendib, allui-ed by the 

 beauty of the scenery, chequered 

 with groves and plains, water and 

 meadows, and blessed by a balmy air. 

 The valley opens to the sea, and is 

 transcendently pleasant. ' ' — Pixkek- 

 TOx's Voyages, vol. vii. p. 218. 



But a passage in Edrisi, while it 

 agi-ees with the tei-ms of Abou-zeyd, 

 explains at the same time that these 

 gobbs were not valleys converted 

 into gardens, to which the seamen 

 resorted for pleasiu'e to spend two or 

 three months, but the embouchures 

 of rivers flowing between banks, 

 covered with gardens and forests, 

 into which mariners were accustomed 

 to conduct their vessels for more 

 secure na^dgation, and in which they 

 were subjected to detention for the 

 period stated. The passage is as 

 follows in Jaubert's translation of 

 Edi'isi, torn. i. p. 73 : — " Cette ile 

 (Serendib) depend des ten-es de 

 I'Inde ; ainsi que les vallees (in orig. 

 aghbab) par lesquelles se dechargent 

 les rivieres, et qu'on nomme ' Vallees 

 de Serendib.' Les navires y mo nil- 

 lent, et les navigateiu's y passent un 

 mois ou deux dans I'abondance et 

 dans les plaisirs." 



It is observable that Ptolemy, in 

 enumerating the ports and harbom-s 

 of Ceylon, maintains a distinction 

 between the ordinary bays, koXttoc, 

 of which he specifies two coiTespond- 

 ing to those of Colombo and Trin- 

 comalie, and the shallower inden- 

 tations, \iui)i; of which he enumerates 

 five, the positions of which go far to 

 identifv them with the remarkable 



estuaries or gobbs, on the eastern and 

 western coast between Batticaloa and 

 Calpentjni. 



To the present day these latter 

 gulfs are navigable for small craft. 

 On the eastern side of the island one 

 of them fonns the harbour of Bat- 

 ticaloa, and on the western those of 

 Chilaw tmd Negombo are bays of 

 this class. Through the latter a con- 

 tinuous navigation has been com- 

 pleted by means of short connecting- 

 canals, and a ti-affic is maintained 

 during the south-west monsoon, fi-oui 

 Caltura to the north of Chilaw, a 

 distance of upwards of eighty miles, 

 by means of craft which navigate 

 these shallow channels. 



These naiTOw passages conform in 

 every particidar to the description 

 given by Abou-zeyd and Edrisi : they 

 run through a succession of woods 

 and gardens ; and as a leading wind 

 is indispensable for their navigation, 

 the period named by the Arabian 

 geogxaphers for their passage is per- 

 haps not excessive dm-ing calms or 

 adverse winds. 



An article on the meaning of the 

 word gobb will be found in the 

 Journal Asiatiqite for September, 

 1844 ; but it does not exhibit clearly 

 the veiy peculiar featiu'es of these 

 openings. It is contained in an ex- 

 ti-act from the work on India of 

 Albthouxi, a contemporary of Avi- 

 cenna, who was bom in the valley of 

 the Indus. — ^' Un golfe (gobb) est 

 comme une encoigiiure et un detom' 

 que fait la mer en penetrant dans le 

 continens : les navires u'y sont pas 

 sans peril particulierement a I'egard 

 du flux et reflux." — Extrait de Vour- 

 rage frALBYEorxi sur Vlnde ; Frag- 

 viens Arabes et Persons, relatifs a 

 rinde, recueilles par M. RElXAri) ; 

 Journ. Asiat., Septenibre et Octobre, 

 1844, p. 261. In the Tm-kish nautical 

 work of Sedi Axi Chelebi, the 3Iohit, 

 wi'itten about A.D. 1550, which con- 

 tains direcrions for sailors navigating 

 the eastern seas, the author alludes 

 to the gobbhas on the coast of Ar- 



