CHAP. I.] 



SAXD FORMATION. 



covered with vegetation ; herbaceous plants, shrubs, and 

 finally trees peculiar to saline soils make their ap- 



misapprehension of this passage 

 has been admitted into the English 

 version of the Vogages of the two 

 Mahometans published in PINKER- 

 TON'S Collections of Voyages and Tra- 

 vels, vol. iii. ; the translator having 

 treated " gobb " as a term ap- 

 plicable to valleyajn general. " Cey- 

 lon," he says, "contains valleys of 

 great length, which extend to the 

 sea, and here travellers repair for 

 two months or more, in which one is 

 called Gobb Serendib, allured 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. "-. PINKER- 

 TON'S Voyages, vol. vii. p. 218. 



But a passage in Edrisi, while it 

 agrees with the terms of Abou-zeyd, 

 explains at the same time that these 

 gobbs were not valleys converted 

 into gardens, to which the seamen 

 resorted for pleasure to spend two 

 or three months, but embouchures 

 of rivers flowing between banks, 

 covered with gardens and forests, 

 into which mariners were accustomed 

 to conduct their vessels for more 

 secure navigation, and in which they 

 were subjected to detention for the 

 period stated. The passage is as 

 follows in Jaubert's translation of 

 Edrisi, torn. i. p. 73: "Cette ile 

 (Serendib) depend des terres de 

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

 aghbab) par lesquelles se dechargent 

 les rivieres, et qu'on nomme ' Valle'es 

 de Serendib.' Les navires y mouil- 

 lent, et les navigateurs y passent un 

 mois ou deux dans 1'abondance et 

 dans les plaisirs." 



It is ooservable that Ptolemy, in 

 enumerating the ports and harbours 

 of Ceylon, maintains a distinction 

 between the ordinary bays, n6\iroc, 

 of which he specifies two correspond- 

 ing to those of Colombo and Trin- 

 comalie, and the shallower inden- 

 tations, \tnr)>', of which he enumerates 

 five, the positions of which go far to 

 identify them with the remarkable 



estuaries or gobbs, on the eastern and 

 western coast between Batticaloa and 

 Calpentyn. 



To the present day these latter 

 gulfs are navigable for small craft. 

 On the eastern side of the island one 

 of them forms the harbour of Bat- 

 ticaloa, and on the western those of 

 Chilaw and 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 traffic is maintained 

 during the south-west monsoon, from 

 Caltura to the north of Chilaw, a 

 distance of upwards of eighty miles, 

 by means of craft which navigate 

 these shallow channels. 



These narrow passages conform in 

 every particular 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 

 geographers for their passage is per- 

 haps not excessive during calms or 

 adverse winds. 



An article on the meaning of the 

 word gobb will be found in the 

 Journal Asiatique for September, 

 1844 ; but it does not exhibit clearly 

 the very peculiar features of these 

 openings. It is contained in an ex- 

 tract from the work on India of 

 ALBYROTJNI, a contemporary of Avi- 

 cenna, who was bom in the valley of 

 the Indus. "Un golfe (gobb) est 

 comme une encoignure et un detour 

 que fait la mer en pe"ne"trant dans le 

 continents : les navires n'y sont pas 

 sans peril particulierement a l'e"gard 

 du flux et reflux." Extrait de fouv- 

 rage <f ALBYROTJNI sur Vliide ; Frag- 

 mens Arabes et Persons, relatifs a 

 rinde, recueffles par M. REINATJD ; 

 Journ. Asiat., Septembre et Octobre, 

 1844, p. 261. In the Turkish nautical 

 work of SIDI ALI CHELEBI, the " Mo- 

 hit, 11 written about A.D. 1550, which 

 contains directions for sailors navigat- 

 ing the eastern seas, the author alludes 

 to the gobbha's on the coast of Ar- 



