18370 



for widening the Pamban Passage. 



117 



Our preparations as regards boats are now nearly complete, to the 

 full extent we will be able to man. We have three rafts and two 

 weighing boats, and expect a small dhoney with two double catama- 

 rans from Jaffna, which will require two reliefs, of twenty-four men 

 each, which is about the number available for duty. According to the 

 rate at which we are now progressing, it will take about three or four 

 months (100 or 120 working days), to deepen the channel three or four 

 feet, according to the thickness of the upper strata of rock, which it is 

 proposed entirely to remove, and give a general breadth of forty yards, 

 besides removing a difficult bend in the centre of the channel. 



The rock is very easy to work, and on an average one pound of pow« 

 der breaks two tons, which we have no difficulty in weighing and re- 

 moving to a distance on the reef. The divers fix the strings to the 

 stones, which are hoisted up and lashed to the sides of the boats, the 

 smaller only being taken on board. The vessel is then hauled off to a 

 distance, and the stones cut away; the largest stone we have yet had 

 occasion to remove has been about 3600-lbs., and took ten minutes to 

 hoist and secure. 



I have restricted the present plan to a breadth of forty yards, being 

 nearly what it has at present. 



Before more is undertaken, it will be necessary to ascertain what can 

 be done to give a greater depth of water over the horse-shoe bank, 

 which extends from this island to the main land, through which there 

 is said to be only two channels, having ten feet water at the highest 

 tides. The difficulty of passing this is little considered by the native 

 commanders, as the risk is inconsiderable, and the inconvenience only 

 extends to the delay of partly unloading the vessel. There are few 

 crafts drawing more than ten feet frequent this passage, as the inner 

 channel is said to have but twelve feet. I cannot satisfactorily account 

 for the formation of the bar. The quantity of sand carried through is 

 very trifling, and I imagine could not extend so far into the gulf of 

 Manar, when the strength of the currents evidently sets on the east and 

 west shores, where the present passages are found. Jt is just possible 

 that this may be the ruins of the dam, when carried away by some 

 great storm, a fact still recorded. In this case, not being subject to 

 fluctuation, or any increase from a constant moving body, if once cut 

 through by dredgers, or other mean*, it would always remain open, the 

 current increasing with the depth of the water, and the bank being 

 composed of coarse sand with fragments of coral and large gravel, 

 totally differing from the small sand on the coasts, would not be sub- 

 ject to fill up. This is rendered probable by our experience in the 

 small channel, no sand having lodged in the part lately excavated. 



3d. Wind very strong with a high sea ; no holes could be bored 



