GEOLOGY 117 



a staple of diet in the case of the natives, who have no nets. I 

 once observed a native in a canoe following a shoal, and making 

 casts with a many-pronged fish-spear ; he continually threw 

 his weapon, but during the ten minutes I watched him, he 

 caught nothing at all. 



There is no good water here, and to fill our tanks we dug 

 holes just above high-water mark ; the liquid that filtered in 

 was slightly brackish, and gave a heavy deposit of earthy matter. 



Any quantity of coconuts may be obtained, with a few chickens 

 and perhaps a pig or two. 



Kachal is about 62 square miles in area, and reaches a height 

 of 835 feet on the eastern side, which is composed of hills of 

 calcareous sandstone and marbly slate, formed in deep seas 

 during the Tertiary period. The western side, which is of very 

 recent formation, consists of a flat shore plain of coralline 

 alluvium, mixed with decayed vegetable matter and loam brought 

 down from the hill. It is covered with dense forest throughout. 

 The population is stated to be 281 — an increase of 100 in the 

 last fifteen years. 



