'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from September 1850 to June 1852. Edited by the Secretary. Volume X.' [‎216] (349/458)

216
NOTES.
very distant period, under water. The state of matters at
tself has already been explained. The Deltas of the Taptee and Ind ^
have, obviously, very lately emerged from the sea, while the whole 0 f
the Arabian shores, from the mouth of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. to the Straits
of Babelwandeb, are described as covered with recent sea shells, and as being very
obviously a raised beach. Dr. Carter describes a cavern near Has Morbat, the
floor of which is a few feet above high-water-mark, the roof being 30 feet
high, obviously excavated by the waves. The face of the cliff on a level with
the roof is full of the borings of lithodomi, and Dr. Carter supposes that the cavern
was excavated while the cliff was slowly emerging from the sea. There are
many similar caverns in the interior : the roofs of all are encrusted with sulphate
of lime as stalagmite and stalactites. The Bunn of Cutch is believed by
the natives, to have been at one time an inland sea, freely accessible from
the main ocean, while an extensive commerce prevailed along its shores
and large sea port towns* with considerable harbours, existed at places
now considered as far in, in the inteior. In proof of the probability
of this, it is maintained that enormous pieces of iron and ship nails were
thrown up from the Runn of Cutch during the earthquake of 1819. It is perfectly
ascertained again that, during the earthquake referred to, the level of the Delta
of the Indus was considerably depressed, the bed of the Runu having sunk no
less than seven feet. These movements are strictly analogous to those already
referred to, as having occurred in the upper part of the Bay of Bengal, in the
middle of the last century. I am in possession of the grinders and some of the
bones of an Elephant dug up from 8 feet below the surface of the earth in
a near Kurrachee : they were entombed in the blue clay formation
So late as the period of the Portuguese supremacy, says Kennedy, in about the
middle of the 17th century, the navigation of the Indus was perfectly safe, much
higher than vessels can now reach 1 the port of Tatta forming a place of resort for
square rigged vessels of 40 guns, the remains of one of which is now to be found
in the plains near Vikkur, whilo it is well known that no vessel, of this size
and form has, for the last thirty years approached the Shores of Scinde. Mr,
Cubitt found during hia investigations, with a view to the construction betwixt
the Mediterranean and Red sea, that the assumption of a difference of level
between the two, made by the French Engineers, was fallacious > and that so far
as could be ascertained the level was nearly the same in both. It appears that
six centuries before the Christian Era Darius Hystaspes completed a canal from the
Kile, a little above Bubastes, to the Red sea near Patomos : this canal, which was
in some places 150 feet wide and 30 deep, passed through the valley of the bitter
lakes and was navigable for vessels of considerable burden, while the Nile, which
supplied it, was high ,* the waters serving to irrigate the vicinity of seveial
important cities. There can be little doubt, that originally, the bitter lakes formed
the head of the Red Sea ; and the Ruins of Serapium and other extensive
towns around clearly iudkate district, at a remote period, was pcs ^