27 



The great majority of the pars are marshalled roughly iu line parallel with and 

 at a distance of from 7 to S miles from land. From Kayalpatlanam to Vaipar a 

 second and outer series occurs, lying in rather deeper water. The depth of the inner 

 series is in the main 7 to S fathoms, that of the outer S to 11 fathoms. 



The surface of these pars consists of a rock which appears in man y instances to he 

 of recent origin, rock formed by the consolidation of sand and dead corals in situ. The 

 nature of the rock varies considerably, partaking usually largely of the present 

 character of the circumjacent sand and as the latter on this portion of the Indian 

 coast is made up principally of calcareous grains formed from the comminuted remains 

 of shells and corals, so the calcrete is normally a more or less pure limestone. 

 Occasionally the remains of corals are met with, and here and there the calcrete contains 

 a varying amount of quartz sand. The proportion of quartz in no case is so great 

 as that characterizing the typical quartzose calcrete so common on the Ceylon side. 

 In several localities visited during the inspection, I am, however, of opinion that the 

 exposed rock surfaces are not of contemporary origin, being of limestone too hard and 

 compact to be considered a modern calcrete. Further, where such latter calcrete does 

 occur, it appears to me to form but a comparatively thin crust over the underlying 

 more compact bed-rock of the plateau whereof the density and grain appeal to me as 

 significantly identical with the extremely hard, compact rock forming the core of the 

 Jaffna islands and peninsula in the north of Ceylon. 



In no place did I see any shelly conglomerate, no rock in which the main 

 constituent could be made out as formed from the accumulation of shells of pearl 

 oysters, cockles and the like. 



It is impossible to say with any certainty. whether the banks which appear at the 

 present day to be the only banks from which we can reasonably expect to reap an 

 occasional pearl harvest, have always had this character or whether the banks which 

 were productive centuries ago and anterior to the advent of European control were 

 situated further south. Certain facts and inferences incline me to suspect that the 

 latter was, to some extent at least, the case. There seems to be considerable evidence 

 pointing to a considerable extension southwards of the Indian Peninsula at a compara- 

 tively recent geological period. Without going into details as regards this it wiJl 

 suffice to point out the great extent of shoals and of shallow water lying off Cape 

 Comorin and to the statement in the ancient Tamil epic " Chilappatikaram " where in 

 the opening lines of the Sth Chapter reference is made to a terrible irruption of the 

 sea which devastated a great tract of country to the south of what is now Cape 

 Comorin. The passage states * that the people of that time (circa second century A.D.) 

 had heard from their fathers that in former days the land had extended further south, 

 and that a mountain called LTumarikkodu and a large tract of country watered by the 

 river Pahruli had existed south of Cape Kumari, and that at a time not very long 

 before, in the reign of the Pandyan King Jayamakirtti alias Nilantarutiruvit Pandya, 

 the sea had torn through the land, destroying the mountain Kumarikkodu and 

 submerging the whole of the country through which flowed the river Pahruli. 



Lending corroborative weight to this legend are the stories of similar irruptions 

 of the sea on the south-west coast of Ceylon recorded in the Buddhist annals of that 

 country. Even now these stories are current among the Sinhalese of the south, who 

 point to the outlying rocks known as the Basses, as the remnant of this lost land 

 which they say was a land of richness abounding in towns and palaces. 



In this connection too we have to note the significant fact of the reported presence 

 of large accumulations of oyster shells overlaid by soil at Muttam, about two miles 

 north-east of Cape Comorin. f 



This presence of an old pearl fishery camp within two miles of the Cape lends 

 further support to the theory of a great extension southwards of the pearl fishery 

 region and while not conclusive as evidence add greatly to the physiographieal 

 probabilities of such a hypothesis. 



* Fide V. Kanakasahhai in " The Tamils ■Eighteen hundred years ago ", Madras, 1904, p. 21. 



tatcraent made to tne to this effect in .May last hy the Juti 'I alaivan from hie personal knowledge. 



