16 FIRST LIST OF THE BIRDS OF THE SOUTH KONKAN. 



fields and cocoanut gardens. So abruptly does their course 

 change from point to point that they appear like land-locked 

 lakes, until the passing of a hill reveals the channel at right 

 angles to its former course. 



The laterite resting uncomformably on the trap, covers a 

 very large area of the South Konkan, and is in places of great 

 thickness. It extends in one continuous sheet from Bankot to 

 Malvan, the trap being exposed in the coast section, only in the 

 deepest cuttings and at the base of the cliffs. From Mai van south- 

 wards and in Savant Vadi the laterite still crops up, but in irre- 

 gular outliers ; near the coast metamorphic rocks, granites and 

 quartzites, not found north, are freely exposed in Malvan, Vengorla 

 and Savant Vadi, relieving with their greyer tints the obtrusive 

 reds and blacks of the laterite. But the latter is everywhere the 

 prevailing rock, which gives a tone to the whole country. Whether 

 the Konkan laterite is, as some assert, the product of decomposed 

 trappean rock, or whether, as others argue, on apparently better 

 evidence it is of purely sedimentary origin, is still a vexed ques- 

 tion which the geologists must settle. It varies, however, much 

 in its character, being harder and more compact to the north, 

 and softer and more mixed with shales, clay, and conglomerate 

 in the south. The best that can be said of it is, that although 

 it doesn't always cut quite like new cheese, it is, as a rule, easily 

 quarried and cut into large slabs ; and that though not always 

 quite watertight, it is a cheap third-rate building stone, well 

 suited to the needs of the population. But if the pillars of your 

 verandah be made of laterite, be sure, unless you wish the first 

 heavy shower of rain to stain everything within reach with a 

 fast red brown colour, to have them coated with chunam. 



These laterite plateaus, which in some places are level, in others 

 undulating, have a general elevation of from 200 to 300 feet, and 

 a gentle but perceptible rise to the east. They are dreary, black, 

 weather-stained wastes, monotonous to a degree, and indescri- 

 bably depressing to your spirits until you catch beyond them 

 lovely peeps of wooded valleys and winding rivers in the 

 ravines below. Throughout the greater part of the year there 

 is no vegetation to be seen on the table lands but cactus bushes 

 and a few stunted trees ; but during the rains, as if by a 

 miracle, all the crevices between the rocks are filled with a 

 wealth of maiden hair and parsley fern, while caladiums, arums, 

 lilies, ( Gloriosa superba) and other plants and creepers 

 springing up in all directions, convert these wilds into a 

 botanists' paradise. The " flame of the forest" bursts into 

 flower on all the slopes, while the purple larkspur and wild 

 balsams cover the level uplands. Grass, coarse and rank, but 

 refreshing in its greenness, sprouts everywhere. In all the 



