Chap. VII.] physical wlvnges noav in progress. 141 



India from 1750 to 1761/' by Richard Owen, Cambrid<?e. London, 1762, 

 page 131.) By referring to the very interesting " Reports of the Madras 

 Engineers" above quoted, it will be found that during the north-east mon- 

 soon of 1849, the coast suffered at Cauverypatam : 

 in 1849; i ^r , o 



also at Negapatam, where part of the Coopum or 



fishing village was washed away ; and at Tranquebar, where the sea 

 encroached two yards on the land. 



Again at Tranquebar in 1853, during a hurricane, two houses were 

 destroyed, and the custom house on the beach out- 

 side the citadel injured by the violence of the 

 waves, and further, between the month of June and the end of that year, 

 one of the groynes and part of the fishing village. It is also mentioned 

 in the Reports, on the authority of Colonel Getting, Danish Engineer 

 OflBcer, and fifty-six years' resident in Tranquebar, that one or two 

 hundred years back, the beach extended 4 or 500 feet beyond the present 

 line of sea-walls, and that at a still later period, a battery stood 300 

 feet further out than the existing walls. 



Fronting the sea between the King's and Queen's bastions, stands 

 a good-sized pagoda, which has suffered much from the heavy surf during 

 storms. During the last 20 years, the sea has imdermined and swept 

 away the building for a distance of not less than 50 yards from its 

 former seaward limits. The annexed sketch (PL IV.) shows its condition 

 in August 1859, the east front of the Goparum or gate-tower having 

 fallen down. 



This rapid wearing of the beach at Tranquebar is attributed to the 



fact that the sands rest on a bed of clay, and to the 



Coast currents. •,•,-, ,• ^ i- ' i> j.i ^ 



more cbrectly vertical action oi the waves here 



than elsewhere ; also to the peculiar set of the cm-rents ; confirmatory of 



which is the fact that the mouth of the river Mundalam-, south of this 



place, as well as the rivers entering the sea at Negapatam and Tii-mell- 



wassel, are shifting in a northerly direction. This action would also 



(363) 



