JOURNAL 
OF THE 
ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL. 
Vol. LXIV. Part II.—NATURAL SCIENCE. 
No. I.—189S. 
* Natural History Notes from H. M. Indian Marine Survey Steamer 
1 Investigator,’ Commander C. F. Oldham , _R. N., commanding. 
Series II., No. 18.—i. The Topography of the Arabian Sea in the 
Neighbourhood of the Laccadives, ii. The Physical Features of some 
of the Laccadive Islands , with Suggestions as to their Mode of Forma¬ 
tion.—By Commander C. F. Oldham, R. N. 
With Plates I & II. 
[Received 15th September:—Read 7th November.] 
i. Topography of the Arabian Sea in the Neighbourhood of the 
Laccadives. 
Sections and Temperatures. 
Only in recent years has any exploration been made of the bottom 
of the ocean in Indian Seas, beyond the hundred-fathom line. 
Before 1881, the hundred-fathom line, on the West Coast of Hindu¬ 
stan, was well sounded out by the officers of the Indian Navy, but no 
attempt had been made to define its limits in either the Bay of Bengal 
or Gulf of Martaban. Since 1881, the officers of the R. I. M. S. “ Inves¬ 
tigator ” have yearly been employed, during the fine season, in surveying 
the coasts, sounding out to deep water, and taking-deep sea soundings 
and temperatures when making passages to and from the surveying 
ground. Prom the soundings and temperatures obtained in the Bay of 
Bengal, Commander A. Carpenter, in 1887, was enabled to write a paper 
* Communicated by the Natural History Secretary. 
J. II. 1 
