1837.] 



Bombay Inlands. 



173 



support the inhabitants of the island, who amount to about a hundred. 

 It is a curious fact in the history of this island, that no water can be 

 obtained by sinking wells near the beach, and that the sole supply of 

 the inhabitants is procured*at the summit of the hill, where a cool 

 spring exists in a dark cave near the great temple, affording a plentiful 

 supply, from which it is conveyed by the Hindoos to their habitations 

 in porous earthen vessels. 



Caranja Island. 



This is a large island, situated the most southerly of any in the har- 

 bour. It consists of two hills, with an intervening valley. The best 

 landing place is situated on the north-east side of the island, at a fishing 

 village, where, however, the water is very shallow, and where itis neces- 

 sary, in order to effect a landing, to employ a native canoe. The shore 

 here is bounded by rocks, as at Elephanta, of the amygdaloid species. 

 The shingle consists of bivalve shells (Area granosa) and waterworn 

 porphyritic gravel. The ascent of the lesser Caranja hill is gradual and 

 easy from the village to the summit of the ridge. The rocks have an 

 inclination to the east and west, as if shelving down on each side of the 

 ridge, presenting the appearance of stratification, or successive depo- 

 sition, and are covered with low jungle of carissa, ixora, euphorbia, 

 and lawsonia. The descent on the west leads to paddy ground, where 

 there is another village, surrounded with neat gardens, and supplied 

 with a tank, fifteen or tw*enty feet in depth, dug out of the solid rock, 

 with a wheel*and earthern pots to raise the water, as is usual in the 

 east. In this valley there is a fine specimen of the Adansonia digitata, 

 sporting a colossal trunk, and spreading out its branches to overshadow 

 the circumjacent cultivated ground.* To reach the top of the ridge 

 it is necessary to cross several mountain streams, whose beds are 

 dry except during the rainy season. The rocks are all amygdaloid, 

 on the western as on the eastern declivity, filled w 7 ith zeolites, &c. and 

 are well exposed in the streamlets, sometimes rising in the form of round 

 masses, at other times shelving out and affording a level run for the 

 water, and then terminating in a small perpendicular fall at the edge 

 of the rock. 



On the eastern side, in this manner, a very picturesque waterfall is 

 formed, the height of the vertical face of the rock being at least twenty 

 feet, over which the whole water of the torrent is precipitated in one 

 sheet, presenting altogether, with the rich foliage of the tamarind in 

 the foreground, a pretty scene. Near this a specimen of mesolite was 



* In this valley I found a specimen of the Agaricus eampestris, the identical English 

 ketchup mushroom, of the existence of which plant, in this part of India, at such a slight 

 elevation above the sea, 1 have never previously heard. 



