The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7.s2.12

c7.s2.12

Of this district it may be said generally that the parts near the coast are fertile, highly cultivated, and populous, and the inland parts rocky and rugged, not much favoured by nature nor improved by man. Compared with other parts of India the climate is moist, the rainfall being very heavy, and hot winds but little felt. Although enervating it is much more equable than that of the Dakhan: and the district, especially the southern part, may be called decidedly healthy. North of Bombay the coast is low and sandy, containing in many places great expanses of salt swamp, the rivers few and shallow, and the harbours insignificant. South of Bombay the coast is bold with a line of hills often bordering the sea, never receding more than two or three miles from it; there are many navigable rivers and commodious harbours, and in most parts deep water near the shore. At various places along the coast are small rocky islands, generally within a quarter of a mile of the mainland, and which were in earlier times, and especially under the Maráthás, fortified and highly valued. Such are Arnála, Kolába, Dánda-Rájápur, and Suvarndurg. At Málvan, besides one or two islánds of this sort, there are a great number of smaller rocks and reefs, and the whole sea between that port and the Vengurla rocks (formerly called by the Portuguese Ilheos Queimados, and thence shown in old English maps under the name of ‘The burnt rocks’)¹ is made dangerous by rocks of all sorts and sizes. Passing inland, the North Konkan is less rugged, and contains far more arable land though a thinner population than the South Konkan, which is, speaking generally, a rocky plateau slightly elevated, and from want of soil exceedingly sterile. But it is intersected by many great rivers and arms of the sea, and the valleys through which these and their tributary streams flow, partly make up by their fertility for the barrenness of the surrounding plateaus. The North Konkan is still in most parts well wooded, and in the coast districts the palmyra and the date palm spring up spontaneously in every direction. Parts of the Southern Konkan are also well covered with trees, though, from the nature of the soil, many parts are bare. On this part of the coast neither palmyra nor date tree is seen, but their place is better supplied by great groves of cocoanut trees planted along all the sandy parts of the coast and the banks of the creeks. The villages throughout the Konkan are almost invariably shaded with trees, and wherever there is room enough the houses stand in their own compounds, while in many of the inland districts they are found in scattered hamlets, several of which go to make up a village.