70 FOOTE : GEOLOGY OF MADURA AND TINNEVELLY DISTRICTS. 



it fovmino' a regular quay wall are to be seen eastward o£ Kilakarai 



(Keelakurray) and especially between Muttupettai (Moottupettah) and 



the spit of land opposite Pamban (Paumben). The rocky barrier or reef 



which stretches very nearly across the Pamban strait consists also of this 



sandstone. There is strong geological evidence to 



prove, that this barrier was once continuous. The 



sandstone quay runs westwards along the coast on the north side of the 



Toniturai spit as far as Pillai Maddam (Pillay Muddum). 



The upraised coral reef referred to above is a striking feature of the 



^ . , , n „ north coast of Rameswaram (Ramesarum) island. 

 Raised coral reei on \ / ? 



Rameswaram island. ^^^ jg worthy of much closer study than the time 



at my disposal enabled me to bestow upon it. It shows best along the 

 beach beginning a couple of hundred yards west of the zemindar's bunga- 

 low, where it forms a little irregular scarp about a yard or 4 feet high 

 ao-ainst the foot of which the waves break in rough weather. Of its 

 true coral reef origin there can be no possible doubt, as in many places the 

 main mass of the rock consists of great globular meandrinoid corals or of 

 huge cups of a species of Porites which, beyond being bleached by weather 

 action, are very slightly altered, and still remain in the position in which 

 they originally grew. The base of the reef is not exposed as far as I 

 could ascertain, not having been suflBciently upraised along the beach, 

 but in a well-section a little to the south of the Gandhamana Parvattam 

 Chattiram the thickness of the coral reef exposed above the surface of 

 the water is at least 10 feet, and probably much more. The great 

 Bwampy flat forming the north lobe, as it were, of Rameswaram island 

 consists, I believe, entirely of this upraised reef hidden only by a thin 

 coating of alluvium or the water of the strongly brackish lagoons which 

 cover the major part of the surface, but do not form a single continuous 

 sheet of water as shown in the map, I came upon masses of coral pro- 

 trudino- at intervals through the alluvium in the very centre of the flats 

 north-westward of the great sand hill crov/ned by the Chattiram just 

 named. The raised reef is very well seen to the north-eastward of 

 Rameswaram town, whcie it forms a miniature cliff from 3 to 4 or 

 ( 7U ) 



