226 Notes, chiefly Geological, [No. 171. 



The soil on the rice flats is a rich mould, deposited in part by the 

 rivers in their passage to the sea from the ghauts. These bring down 

 a considerable portion of the decayed vegetable matter of the dense 

 jung leson their banks, mingled with the detritus of granitic hypogene 

 rocks, and of the laterite. When lateritic detritus is in excess, vege- 

 table matter is added by the natives as a manure. Inland, to the 

 NE., the granitic masses of Jumalabad, Murbiddry, and Carculla rise 

 above the surface, the former to a great height, almost inaccessible from 

 the steepness of its sides. 



Mangalore. — Laterite is still the surface rock as before observed. 

 The numerous back waters or marine lagoons, which lie along the 

 Malabar Coast, are formed at the mouths of rivers by sand bars thrown 

 up by the antagonizing forces of the mountain torrents and the tidal 

 wave. These sand bars are liable to be broken through, and alter their 

 position by the force of extraordinary storms. Their beds afford in- 

 structive examples of the manner in which both fresh water and 

 marine exuviae may be mingled and embedded in the same stratum. 

 Numerous sand dunes also occur at the embouchures of rivers near 

 back waters. These tranquil marine lagoons greatly facilitate native 

 commerce along the coast. 



Kundapur.— About a mile inland from the present embouchure of 

 the Kundapur river, stands the town of Barcelore, the supposed 

 Barace of Ptolemy: a place of great traffic in former times with 

 Arabia and Egypt, and which is supposed to have stood upon the old 

 embouchure of the river before the land gained upon the sea. 



Vicramaditya, or his dynasty, is said to have ruled 2,000 years at 

 Barcoor (Barcelore), and, after him Salivahana, to whom succeeded 

 Buddha Penta Raja and the Bijanugger dynasty. A human sacrifice, 

 offered up to increase its commerce, is alluded to in the Mackenzie MSS. 



I observed near the old Pagoda at Kundapur, an inscription on stone, 

 which opportunity did not permit me to copy. Barcelore is still a place 

 of great native trade. 



The present bar at the river's mouth does not admit vessels of 

 more than fifty or sixty corges, which find secure anchorage under the 

 lee of the north bank. Its entrance was protected by a battery built 

 by Hyder, and an old fort now in ruins. 



