1846.] on the Western Coast of South India. 229 



with the physical aspect of the country, the vegetable, animal, and 

 social systems undergo a striking change. A new language strikes the 

 ear, and the eye is astonished at the sight of the wives and daughters 

 of the upper classes, walking abroad naked from the waist upwards. 

 The houses of towns and villages, instead of being huddled together as 

 in the Carnatic, are widely separated in gardens or desams like the 

 Malay Campong, and the generality of inhabitants struck me as re- 

 sembling Malays in their habits and customs. The singular right of 

 inheritance enjoyed by the sister's son is precisely similar to that of 

 the Menangcabowe Malays. Sheep are no longer seen, and instead of 

 the fine oxen of Coimbatore, one sees a miserable breed of black cattle, 

 hardly larger than donkies. The peculiar manners and customs of the 

 various castes are too various for detail here. 



Goa and Malwan. — Laterite covering granite and the hypogene 

 rocks, continues from Sedashegur to Goa, and probably from Goa by 

 Vingorla to the north of Malwan. 



At Malwan gneiss occurs, and a bright magnetic iron ore, resem- 

 bling that of Salem, disseminated in grains and nests, or in alternate 

 layers with quartz. The rocks off the coast, washed by the breakers 

 from their white colour and shape have the appearance of a boat under 

 sail. 



Mr. Fraser describes the overlying trap as coming down to Malwan, 

 but I did not meet with it on the coast till I reached the village of 

 Sarki. 



Sarki. — I had no opportunity of examining the rocks at Ratnagherry, 

 which lies between Malwan and Sarki : but the contour of the ghauts 

 here is apparently trappean. At Sarki the trap hills descend towards 

 the coast in long, flat- topped, wall-like promontories, becoming higher 

 and wilder around Severndroog. 



Bancoot or Fort Victoria. — The trap rises from the sea beach in a 

 high steep rock, on the western extremity of which stands the fort com- 

 manding the entrance of the river. The citadel and flag-staff are 

 conspicuous objects at sea. The town extends, at the base of the rock, 

 towards the sea, and is well studded by cocoanut trees. 



The rocks in the little bay of Shiwurdin are dark basalt and amyg- 

 daloid, imbedding zeolites, geodes and veins of chalcedony and quartz. 

 At the water's edge the basalt is much honeycombed. 



