'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from September 1850 to June 1852. Edited by the Secretary. Volume X.' [‎179] (312/458)

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tave no
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lit It
toil
LITTORAL concrete, or shell gravel deposit.
179
04 That these things have been brought about by movements of the
nd not advances and recessions of the sea, is obvious from the
diversity of levels at which the various beds are found, and the obli-
quity> * ,
bein 0, peculiarly manifest opposite the village of Sewree, where they dip
towards the east, in a direction the opposite of that of the fresh water
beds contained in the trap, which come afterwards to be described. Near
Sion the soil of the rice fields obviously composed of the blue clay altered
by cultivation, is considerably higher than some of the older alluvia
alon 0 * the line of the Malum road beyond Byculki, over which no recent
marine deposits can be traced, though in reality they are at present
several feet below spring tides. The depressing process would seem
here to be still in progress—we have no reason to suppose this to have
been subject to tidal inundation 170 years ago, when Dr. Freyer
wrote, though he distinctly describes the isolation of Love Grove
and Mahim.
and frequent incurvation and dislocation, of the strata, this last
LITTORAL CONCRETE, OR SHELL GRAVEL DEPOSIT.
25.—Its Character .—As we have no river or recent fresh-water
deposits, the upper marine beds constitute the newest of our formations,
seeming to belong to the post-pliocene, or recent deposits, the materials
of which they consist being identical with those now on the sea shore.
The mass varies from ten or twelve feet to a few inches in thickness :
it is in general laid down in regular beds, for the most part petty nearly
horrizontal, and Laving no appearance whatever of drift. The mate
rial is sometimes perfectly loose, and without any mineralization what
ever i most frequently it is united by a calcareous cement into a tole
rably firm shelly rock. The larger shells are often filled full of spar,
and on many occasions the external coating is all that remains of them,
the walls of the shell itself being transformed into crystalline limestone.
In this form it constitutes a valuable building stone.* It is a curious
fact, that it often appears in these two opposite conditions in places
closely contiguous to each other. On the western half of the Espla
nade, from near the Church Gate road to the Native Town, it is in the
condition of rock. Near the Native Town more especially it is highly
* See note B, at the end for the mode of working littoral concrete for the purpose of
w#hitecture.