ELEPHANTA. 
257 
CHAPTER XIX. 
ELEPHANTA. A GECKO. A CATTI. 
One of our first excursions after our arrival at 
Bombay was to Elephanta, a small island situated 
within the harbour,, and called by the natives Ga- 
rapori. It is about five miles and a half from the 
Mahratta shore., appearing something like a long hill 
split in two, there being a low, narrow valley run- 
ning between two abrupt eminences which skirt it 
on either side. The island is rather more than six 
miles in circumference, and uninhabited, except occa- 
sionally by a few miserable outcasts, who resort thither 
when they can find no more commodious shelter — 
such, at least, was the case when we visited it. About 
a furlong from the beach there used to stand a huge 
misshaped figure of an elephant, rudely carved from 
an immense mass of black rock, and from which the 
island received its modern name of Elephanta, given 
to it by the Portuguese. This figure has now fallen. 
The engraving represents it just as it stood previously 
to 1814, when the head and neck dropped off; it is, I 
believe, the only representation that has ever been given. 
This colossal sculpture, when I last saw it, was sur- 
rounded with so thick a growth of underwood that I 
had some difficulty in making my way to it. While I 
z 3 
