82 POOTE : GEOLOGY OF MADURA AND TINNEVELLY DISTRICTS. 



deep uranis, or square drinking-water tanks, and iu neither was the 

 marine bed seen in situ. The Melmandai fection yielded a largo 

 Cytberea, probably C castanea, while the Sevalputti bed showed numer- 

 ous specimens of Pyrazus, Cytherea, Cardita, and Ostrea. 



One more alluvial deposit deserves to be noticed, — a submerged 



Submerged forest at f^^^'®^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ western end o£ the 

 ViUimukkam, Valimukkam bay. The forest shows about half a 



mile north of Valimukkam village in the form of a considerable number 

 of tree stumps standing up out of a bed of soft and tenacious black 

 clay containing oysters and other marine shells imbedded in it. The 

 whole occupies about half an acre in extent, and is just above water 

 at or near high tide. The general appearance of the forest reminded 

 me forcibly of parts of the well-known submerged forest which forms 

 60 conspicuous a feature on the beach south of Swansea in South 

 Wales, with this difference that at Valimukkam no leaves or fruits 

 appeared to be preserved, but only the stumps and detached branches 

 and twigs imbedded around the stumps. The wood is of the coloiu" of 

 bog oak, but is in a far softer and more pulpy condition. The specimens 

 I collected were utterly ruined by slight pressure before I could dry 

 them. The disposition of the roots with regard to the stems was not 

 sufficiently characteristic to allow me to recognise the trees represented, 

 but they seemed all very similar. Oysters and other marine shells were, 

 as already mentioned, seen in the black clay, but I picked up on the beach, 



A bone ornament out Or rather out of the ripple of the wavelets, a small 

 of the forest bed. bone ornament, a pendant very much like a rude 



ear pendant, perforated at the smaller end, and with a couple of lines in- 

 cised all round, each at some little distance from the end. This pendant — 

 the only quasi-prehistoric bone ornament I have found in South India — was, 

 when found, partly surrounded by the black clay and presented every ap- 

 pearance of having been washed out of it yevj recently. It was very late in 

 the day when I made this find, and I was too weary to make any further 

 search at the time, besides which I had many miles yet to march to a new 

 camp. Unfortunately I had no time to re-visit Valimukkam bay, glad- 

 ly though I would have done so, for it is a spot that certainly calls for very 

 ( 8i ) 



