May 1861.] 



Public Works in Travancore. 



133 



who will I am sure afford Mr. Crawford his assistance, in explain- 

 ing the remarkable phenomena which Mr. Crawford describes. 



Extract from Hamilton's account of the East Indies in Pinker- 

 ton's Collection of Voyages and Travels^ (1678 to 1723.) 



Mud-bay is a place, that, I believe, few can parallel in the 

 world ; it lies on the shore of Saint Andrea, about half a league 

 out in the sea, and is open to the wide ocean, and has neither Is- 

 land nor bank to break off the force of the billows which come 

 rolling with great violence on all other parts of the Coast, in the 

 South West monsoon, but on the bank of mud, lose themselves in 

 a moment, and ships lie on it, as secure as in the best harbour 

 without motion or disturbance. It reaches about a mile long 

 shore, and has shifted from the northward in 30 years about three 

 miles. 



A MS. note has the following remark : — This singular accumu- 

 lation of mud still exists and still affords the same convenience for 

 anchorage in the worst weather. The present account was pub- 

 lished in 1723 and now in 1825. The mud bank has shifted from 

 Saint Andrea in N. Lat. 90° 40' to Poonangonot in N. Lat. 9° 

 25' being 15 miles in 102 years. 



The mud bank now (1860) is in Latitude 90° 28' 30." 



From Hugh Cbawfokd, Esq., Commercial Agent at Allepey, to 

 Francis N. Maltby, Esq., British Resident of Travancore, 

 Trevandrum, dated 20th June 1860, No. 201. 



I have the honor to acknowledge your letter, No. 988 of the 16th 

 instant, and have in accordance with your directions affixed a note 

 to each Chart of the Roads of Allepey, that the soundings are in 

 feet not fathoms. 



Lieutenant Taylor attributes smoothness of the water to the 

 soft mud at the bottom, which when " stirred up by a heavy swell 



