22 FIRST LIST OF THE BIRDS OF THE SOUTH KONKAN. 



All the principal towns in Ratnagiri are situated either on 

 the coast or at the heads of the tidal creeks. Chiplun, Raja- 

 pur and Vengorla are, however, the only towns having any- 

 considerable trade. 



To return to the configuration of the country once more, and 

 for the last tim3, you will no doubt wonder, as you see the 

 ocean on one side and the great Sahyadri flange running 

 parallel to it, as a huge inland cliff, whether the sea has 

 receded from the Ghats, or whether the denudation of the 

 Konkan has been accomplished by rain and rivers alone. 

 Geologists, as far as I can learn, are still in doubt on the point, 

 and the true history of this little portion of the earth's crust 

 still remains to be written. As the subject is important I 

 cannot do better than quote Mr. Blanford. He says*: — " It is 

 impossible to see this cliff (the Sahyadri Range) without specu- 

 lating on the possibility of its origin being due to marine 

 action. A depression of about 1,000 to 1,500 feet would leave 

 the crest of the Sahyadri everywhere, at least 500 feet 

 above the sea, with a few spurs jutting out of capes, 

 and such plateaux as Matheran remaining as islands ; all 

 the lower hills would be covered. It is true that in India 

 at the present day sea cliffs are rare and exceptional, but 

 this fact is due to the circumstance that the large quantity 

 of detritus, brought from the interior by rivers, tends to protect 

 the coast. As the drainage from the crest of the Ghats is 

 eastwards, no rivers, and only very small streams, would have 

 run into the sea from the Sahyadri, and cliffs would neces- 

 sarily have been formed. Of course any marine denudation of 

 the Konkan must have taken place at a sufficiently distant 

 date for the surface of the country and the form of the cliffs 

 to have been greatly modified by subaerial denudation, after 

 the period of elevation above the sea. 



ic There are two difficulties to be accounted for in supposing 

 that the Sahyadri scarp is an ancient line of sea cliffs. One 

 is the circumstance that if the Konkan was beneath the sea, 

 whilst the cliffs were being cut, marine deposits must have 

 formed to a considerable extent; none of these deposits have, 

 however, hitherto been detected. The other difficulty is the 

 irregularity of level at the base of the scarp. As the surface 

 of the sea is uniform in height, it always cuts back a line 

 of cliffs from a horizontal coast line. Further research is 

 necessary before it can be stated either that marine deposits 

 are wanting in the Konkan, or that no trace of an original 

 shore line can be detected ; and it is certain that both marine 



* Articles on the Geology of portions of the Bombay Presidency, written for the 

 Bombay Gazetteer, 1878. 



