1837-] 



Bombay Islands. 



163 



ous blood-red streaks or veins traversing it in various directions. It is 

 to the latter species, or to the mock pearls so frequently employed as 

 ornaments by the inferior castes, that we are to refer the expression of 

 the historian of Alexander : " lapilli ex auribus pendent."! But with 

 regard to the " Gemmas margaritasque mare litoribus infundir," it is 

 not easy to give a satisfactory explanation, although the latter obvious- 

 ly relate to the pearls of the Indian seas. 



We proceed now to a separate sketch of the islands, in the order of 

 their importance* 



Bombay Island. 



The whole island may be considered as a plain, variegated on the 

 east with considerable undulations, which form the small eminences 

 termed Mazagon, Parell, and Oblong Hills. The southern part divides 

 into two necks of land, of which the eastern portion, a low and flat sur- 

 face, affords the site for the Fort and Dungeree, or the Black Town, 

 and leaving an intermediate space called the Esplanade, terminates at 

 Mendam's Point, the commencement of the Coulaba Causeway. The 

 western promontory is considerably elevated, consisting principally of 

 Malabar Hill, which lies near the entry of the harbour, and terminates 

 at Malabar Point. Included between these points, with a crescentic 

 outline, as between the prongs of a fork lies Back Bay, a considerable 

 portion of water, with a sea communication, occupying a span of 21. 

 miles, the totaj mean breadth and length being about 11 and 1| miles 

 respectively. The water is shoal, having a depth of 2| fathoms in the 

 centre, and contains several sands, sunken rocks, and others exposed 

 at low water. 



The essential composition of this tract is clay stone-porphyry and 

 amygdaloid, and in some places, as on Malabar Hill, basalt shews itself, 

 each corresponding with the varieties described, but seeming to vary 

 with regard to the proportion of the basis and the magnitude of the 

 cavities, and consequent quantity of the mineral contents. From Men- 

 dam's Point, a ledge of amygdaloid runs out south-west by south, to form 

 a junction with Coulaba or Old Woman's Island, a flat and rocky mass, 

 thinly covered with soil, which barely conceals the subjacent rocks, 

 bearing every mark of having been at some period a continuous portion 

 of that promontory of the island of Bombay upon which the town is si- 

 tuated. Advantage has been taken of this ledge to form a connecting 

 causeway between the two islands, which is left quite dry at low water, 

 so that a free land communication may be kept up in such circumstances. 

 The prevailing rocks in this little insulated land are the same as those 

 already mentioned, with the occasional appearance of basalt as if in 

 dykes. At the southern point a dangerous rocky mass extends out to sea 



+ Quint Curt Ruf. 1. viii. c. ix, 



