76 
Proceedings of tlie Poyal Society 
regularly at one time of the year, and that during the rainy and 
windy season, that the mud cones appeared. 
There is a curious circumstance about the Allippey bank, which 
I give also on Mr Crawford’s authority, viz., that, in gales of wind, 
vessels may he seen lying at anchor on the hank with their bows 
pointed in various directions, as if influenced by eddying currents 
in the sea of mud. 
The weather being too calm, and the time of year being too 
early, to exhibit the full virtues of the bank, I noticed none of these 
wonders, but I saw enough to show that there was some extra- 
ordinary virtue in the place. We got into the boat with some 
difficulty at Allippey, on account of the surf ; but, at the place 
where the bank now is, for several miles there was not only no 
surf, but not a ripple at the water’s edge, and we stepped on to the 
shore from the boat with the greatest ease. Looking from shore 
towards the sea horizon, one saw a crest of surf, or, more properly 
speaking, swell, all round in a horse- shoe form, and reaching out to 
about three and a half miles from land, enclosing this smooth 
pond, — the swell being gradually deadened as it neared shore, till 
it died off into absolute quiescence. 
I passed Allippey in a P. & 0. steamer last autumn during the 
height of the S.W. monsoon ; but, although within sight of 
land, we were too far off to notice the peculiarities of the mud 
bank. 
The Narrahal bank, at present five miles to the north of Cochin, 
has been known for long, but was almost forgotten till it was redis- 
covered (I may say) by Captain Castor, the master-attendant at 
Cochin in 1861, and surveyed by him in 1865. Captain Castor 
(who is a native and a very intelligent man) is now master-attendr 
ant at Coconada, but was ordered to meet me at Cochin, so that I 
had the advantage of his presence in visiting Narrakal. Curiously 
enough, he is now statioued at the only place I visited in India, 
which approached in character to the peculiarities of these mud 
banks; for, at Coconada, there is a quantity of mud in the bay, 
which to a considerable extent reduces the surf. But Coconada is 
a regular bay, into which the Gfodavery river discharges its mud ; 
whilst the banks now in question are detached spots of a peculiarly 
