A REPORTED SHOAL 91 



Livermore ; but we were poorer by the loss of Lieut. 

 E. J. Beaumont, who had for a time attained that 

 height of a sailor's ambition, a shoregoing billet. 



On our way southwards, in addition to running the 

 usual soundings between Bombay and Colombo, we 

 took observations for checking the position of Kalpeni 

 Island in the Laccadives, and spent some time in 

 searching for a shoal which the captain of a Dutch 

 mail-steamer had reported to be lying in the Nine- 

 degree Channel, right in the way of traffic between 

 Colombo and the Red Sea. The supposed shoal 

 proved to correspond with Euclids definition of a 

 point, for where it was said to exist we could find 

 nothing less than iioo fathoms of water. Our deepest 

 sounding between the Laccadives and the Malabar 

 coast gave 1420 fathoms, but later observations show 

 that this tongue of the sea has a maximum depth 

 of a little over 1500 fathoms and a minimum bottom- 

 temperature of about 35° Fahr. The bottom consists 

 on the Malabar side of dark mud brought down by 

 the streams, succeeded as we go westwards, first by 

 green sand, and then, as the islands are approached, 

 by a grey, calcareous ooze, formed partly of shells of 

 Foraminifera, but chiefly of fine coral detritus. 



Kalpeni, to which we were able to give one after- 

 noon, is really a copy of Anderut and Kiltan ; but 

 as we saw it just after, instead of just before, the 

 south-west monsoon, it showed up better than the 



