184/. J Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 499 



science. En attendant, .... veuillez agreer ^expression des sentiments de 

 haute consideration, avec lesquels je suis, 



Monsieur 



Votre tres humble 



et tres obeissant serviteur, 

 (Signed) E. Gibelin, 

 Procureur general, Chef de V administration de la Justice a Pondichery. 

 Mr. Piddington stated in reference to the highly interesting work of Mr. 

 Gibelin noticed in the presentation, that while Sub- Secretary he had fur- 

 nished that gentleman at his request and expense with copies of some rare 

 Sanscrit works. 



Zoological Department. 

 Mr. Piddington read the subjoined note, giving 

 An account of a Volcanic Island off the Coast of Coromandel, from the 

 Annual Register, Vol. 1st, 1758. 

 I find the following highly curious paper in the Annual Register, and 

 it has undoubtedly escaped the notice of all the writers on Indian and 

 on general Geology, though clearly allied to the phcenomena of the 

 same kind which have appeared in the western hemisphere as Sabrina 

 off the Azores, and Graham's Island in the Mediterranean, in our own 

 days. The time at which it occurred is also remarkable as being the 

 epoch which from the great earthquake at Lisbon in 1755, to 1/67, 

 may be called an earthquake epoch all over the world. 



As connected also with the Volcanic action on the opposite shores 

 and islands of the Bay and within the Andaman sea, this last recorded 

 eruption on the Indian shore is highly interesting. Capt. Halsted's 

 account (in Vol. X. of the Journal) of the upheavment of Cheduba, 

 would place that event in 1749 but we may not improbably suppose 

 that his aged informant might have mistaken his age, as natives of the 

 east usually do. There is no shoal now near enough to Pondicherry to 

 allow us to suppose it the remains of this remarkable Island, and at 

 three leagues distant from the coast there 40 or 50 fathoms are found, 

 so that it may have easily subsided' into deep water. The shoal seen 

 by H. M. S. Melville (Goris Bank) was in a line joining Pondicherry 

 and Chittagong, and a shoal noted on a chart in my possession which 

 belonged to the late Mr. Greenlaw, as having been seen by an Ameri- 

 can ship, is close on the line joining Pondicherry and Cheduba. Both 

 these may have been a partial upheavment in this line. 



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