1846.] on the Western Coast of South India. 227 



Honawer (Onore) and Sedashegur. — The geology of Honawer, or 

 Onore, has already been touched upon. Suffice it to say, that laterite 

 is the prevalent rock. 



Sedashegur is about 168^ miles, northerly from Mangalore, about 

 three miles south of the southern frontier of the Portuguese terri- 

 tory of Goa. The western ghauts here advance boldly to the ocean 

 and afford some points of view, which truly approach the magnifi- 

 cent. The back ground of the picture is filled with the wild moun- 

 tain scenery of the ghauts, from whose forests issues the Kali, or 

 Black River, to the Indian Sea in the fore ground, expanding into a 

 broad and beautiful lake near its embouchure, and stretching between 

 two bold promontories, the northernmost of which is crowned by the 

 picturesque ruins of the old fort which once guarded the entrance. 



Across the mouth of the river runs a sand bar, over which at high 

 water there is a draught of about two and three-quarter fathoms. Vessels 

 of about forty corges find a snug anchorage within the bar ; and boats 

 of from twenty to twenty-five corges pass up the river eighteen miles 

 to Mallapur, where there is a salt depot. They carry up salt-fish 

 and salt from Gokurn, and bring back rice and firewood, chiefly for 

 the Goa and Bombay markets. Mr. Oakes attempted to make this a 

 depot for the cotton shipped from the interior to Bombay, &c, as 

 being a much more convenient harbour, and nearer Bombay than that 

 of Kompta. But the project failed in consequence of the opposition 

 of the Gujerati merchants of Kompta, who were averse to quitting 

 their Mamool village. 



The formation of the ghauts near Sedashegur to the south, is chiefly 

 granite with gneiss and hornblende schi3t, penetrated often by large 

 dykes of basaltic greenstone, which at their base are covered partially 

 by laterite. Their summits, I had no opportunity of examining. 



A little south of Sedashegur, between Ancola and Chendaya, the 

 beach of a small and pretty indentation of the sea is strewed with nodules 

 of a stiff black clay, resembling in colour that of the lignite deposit at 

 Beypoor : the situs cannot be very far distant. Iron is said to be smelted 

 at Gopchatta. 



The soil is usually a sandy loam. The staple articles of cultivation 

 are rice, cocoanuts, sugarcane and raggi. The latter and hill- rice 



2 H 



