'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from September 1850 to June 1852. Edited by the Secretary. Volume X.' [‎168] (301/458)

168
GEOLOGY OF BOMBAY.
Malabar Coast from Lat* 9 ° to Lat. 20 ° N., on a narrow examina
tion seeming like fragments broken from the mainland during the
many upheavals and depressions to which it has from time to time
been subjected ; several of these movements having obviously occurred
at a comparatively recent period, geologically considered.
2. The Bombay Group, between Lat. 19 , and 20° consists of
fifteen or twenty Islands in all; 1, the Island of Bassein, about thirty
miles to the northward of that which gives the cluster its name;
2, of Dravee ; and 3, of Versova, just off the shores of Sal-
sette ; 4, of Salsette, by much the largest of them all ; 5,
Trombay, conspicuous for the mountain called Neat's Tongue,
from the singular resemblance it bears to the tongue of an Ox, and
which attains the altitude of 1000 feet ; 6, Bombay itself, now on the
Northward united to Trombay and Salsette, as these are united to
each other by bridges and embankments, and to the Southward to
7, Old Woman's Island, and 8 Colabah ; 9, Elephanta ; 10 Butcher’s;
and 11, Gibbet island ; 12, Caranjah ; and 13, Henry ; and 14,
Kenery ; with little rocks and islets of lesser note and name.
3. —Bombay, including the large and little Colabahs, is the only is
land of the group I have been able to examine with tolerable care,
and it is the only one I have attempted to describe somewhat
minutely, though not so much so as it ought to have been,
I have traversed most of the other islands, some of them re
peatedly : they seem all characterised by the same geological fea
tures, and I have introduced into the description of Bombay notices
of their rocks, and of those on a part of the adjoining mainland, in so
far as 1 have had the means of examining them.
4. —The principal rocks throughout this group of islands, are vol
canic, but there are probably a greater variety of trap rocks to be found
on the island of Bombay itself than on any similar area any where i
the traps are interstratified by Neptunian rocks, chiefly of fresh water
origin, and covered over with marine alluvium of three or four different
ages and formations.
5. —The islands are separated by narrow creeks from each other (one of
the most beautiful of which is that which forms Bombay Harbour,)
often contracting to a few scores of yards in width, dry at half tidfy
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