1862.] DENISON DEATH OF PISHES. 453 



by moving water. This is also strikingly characteristic of the frag- 

 ments of bones, which all apparently belong to an animal that still 

 supplies a large proportion of the animal food of the country. But, 

 besides these, I have obtained from the same bed more unequivocal 

 testimony to the recent period at which it received its contents, by 

 the discovery in it of fragments of tobacco-pipes. I neither showed 

 these fragments nor mentioned their occurrence to Messrs. Birch and 

 Franks, so that their judgment was not in the least influenced by 

 them. If additional evidence were needed to show the true nature 

 of bed No. 5, these portions of tobacco-pipes surely finally settle the 

 matter. Mr. Geikie asserts that, ^' whatever may be the contents of 

 this bed of silt, they are undoubtedly of contemporaneous deposi- 

 tion ; in other words," he adds, to make it more plain, ^' all the 

 materials imbedded in the stratum were laid down at the same time 

 with the stratum itself." That is, according to his theory of the 

 nature of the bed, either these tobacco-pipes on the Society's table 

 were the work of the Eomans, or the valley of the Perth has been raised 

 25 feet since the latter part of the 16th century, when it is generally 

 believed Sir "W. Raleigh introduced tobacco into this country. 



It cannot be doubted, it seems to me, that Mr. Geikie's important 

 inferences were based on a too hasty examination of the section, 

 and were adopted the more readily because perhaps they fell in with 

 opinions already held. 



11. On the Death of Fishes during the Monsooit off the Coast of 

 Ikdia. By Sir W. Denison, Governor of Madras. 



[In a letter to Sir E. I. Miirchison, F.R.S., F.G.S., &c., dated Potucamund, 

 November 1st, 1861.] 



On steaming between Mangalore and Cananore, on the west coast 

 of the Peninsula, I was sensible of a very offensive smeU, which at 

 last I found to proceed from the sea itself. When I landed at Ca- 

 nanore, I found that the sea-breeze brought in a similar smell — a 

 little modified in intensity, of course ; and, on inquiry, I found that 

 for some time after the S.W. monsoon the sea was always very 

 offensive, — that thousands of fish were thrown up on the shore dead. 

 The cause of this was attributed to the mass of fresh water poured 

 into the sea during the monsoon. In three months, 120 inches of 

 rain, on an average, faU upon an area of, say, 60 miles in width, 

 for the whole length of the coast-line, from each running mile of this 

 coast ; therefore there will be about 800,000,000 of gallons poured 

 into the sea daily ; but, as most of this will come out of the rivers, 

 of course, at certain points, the quantity will be multiplied twofold. 

 The natural consequence will be the destruction of all animal and 

 vegetable life, which, being adapted for salt water, must die after a 

 time in fresh water. There will, therefore, be layers of Shells 

 covered by strata of sand and mud, Sea-weeds in various stages of 

 decomposition, and Fish, small and great, deposited at the bottom of 

 these seas. I saw thousands of dead fish fioating, and there were, 

 no doubt, thousands lying dead at the bottom. 



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