764 Geological Notes on the Northern Conkan. [Dec. 



renovation of land. But especially we note here destruction and 

 degradation by freshes and spring tides, where the water is all power-- 

 ful, and there are no " antagonist forces," such as are imagined by 

 those who are inclined to slight actual causes, and to controvert the 

 principles so ably developed by Mr. Lyell. I cannot avoid here 

 remarking, as it is a point so apropos to the country under considera- 

 tion, that a strange assumption has gone forth with regard to the 

 powers and magnitude of tropical vegetation and its agency on the 

 crust of the globe ; as if it were a general law of nature that the 

 nearer we approach to the equator, the thicker the vegetation. So 

 that tropical vegetation must have essentially a greater power of 

 resistance to the destruction of land than extra-tropical. Such a 

 position is manifestly untenable on the old continent, whatever ground 

 there may be for the opinion in the West Indies and South America. 

 In Guzerat and in the Dekhan bareness of natural vegetation is the 

 prevailing character ; while even in Malabar, where the most rank 

 vegetation exists, I have been shewn such devastation from the sea 

 alone, that I am inclined to think that no " antagonist power" of 

 vegetation can be worth considering. An eminent geologist*, advert- 

 ing to the doctrines of Mr. Lyell, asks, " Are there no antagonist 

 powers in nature to oppose these mighty ravages ? no conservative 

 principles to meet this destructive agency ? The single operation of 

 vegetation is a vast counterpoise to all." (!) 



Should we interrogate nature in Guzerat, especially about the Tapti 

 and Nerbudda, we shall find that the conservative principles of vege- 

 tation stand no chance against the destructive agency of water. 



On the plateau of the Dekhan, degradation can only be slightly 

 repaired in one place, by the operation of degradation from a higher 

 level and subsequent deposit below. At the level of the sea in the 

 Northern Conkan and in Guzerat the rains carry away vegetable mould 

 and vegetation with it. The denuded tracts support no vegetation 

 capable of protecting the land on which it grows from farther loss. 

 The tides with the small portion of sediment they deposit, bring no 

 contribution to vegetable soil. Should they throw up a shoal between 

 the periodical rains, the next fresh would certainly carry it away. 

 The " antagonist powers" are here freshes and tides, but they both 

 tend to the destruction of vegetation, and to throw insuperable obsta- 

 cles in the way of its renewal. 



Proceeding from Surat through Oolpar to the Kim river, nothing 

 but black cotton soil occurs until you cross the Kim, at the village 



* Professor Sedgwick. 



