'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from September 1850 to June 1852. Edited by the Secretary. Volume X.' [‎248] (381/458)

248
EEPOUT OK THE HEAVY
the village were flooded to the depth of several feet. The fishermen
by cutting through the barrier in front, and thus allowing the water
to flow’ uninterruptedly prevented any loss that might otherwise
have ensued.
7.—All this, it is my belief, might have been avoided, had the
proper authorities taken the precaution of clearing the land,
which aceummulated during the past year, from the main
channel of the Learee, where it branches, but the fact was the
season was an unusual one, and previous experience led to a belief
that no danger was to be anticipated from such a cause.
g. Between three and four hundred houses are reported to have
fallen, or to have suffered so much damage that their removal was
deemed advisable, the greater part of these were beyond the influence
of the flood ; and their destruction must be attributed solely to the
rain.
9. —This extent of loss, caused by the fall of less than thirty inches of
rain, will naturally draw attention to the manner of building here; and
to the materials of which houses are composed, and to this subject I
must devote a few words.
10. —The better class of Scindee houses have substantial stone foun
dations ; the frames are. of the Baubool or even better wood, and to
support a coating of prepared mud with which they are covered, the
short wood of the country, either tamarisk or mangrove, is made use of,
as laths are in houses of English construction. The roofs are flat, and
are protected with mud only. All the houses of this class which suffered
were old and dilapidated previous to the rain; the removal of them was
a benefit to the public.
11. —The chief sufferers were parties who have only known the
country, since British occupation, and who built for the climate as they
knew it. Some of these built after the style most familiar to them—that
of Bombay and the Concan, which is a highly pitched roof, with a
covering of tiles, and calculated for such a fall of rain, as the western
coast of India is annually subjected to. Others adopted the flat roof
after the manner of the natives of the country, and for additional pro
tection covered it with a slight coating of chunam. Such roofs invariably
leaked, and in a few instances the water got into the walls and ren
dered the houses at once unsafe, some of thorn fell to tho ground— -in one
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