Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c12.3

c12.3

The Islands in the Bay of Bengal are many of them covered with shells and marine productions to a great height, and there are beds of large smooth pebbles near the Herdwar some hundreds of feet above the present level of the Ganges; the sea has therefore gradually been retiring, and consequently the position of the Equator was formerly farther north than it is at present in this part of the earth; and if a few similar observations were made in other countries, it is evident that the ancient situation of the Pole upon the surface of the earth might be determined sufficiently near for explaining many difficulties and paradoxes in geographical antiquities, for this purpose also it would be advisable to have permanent meridian lines drawn in high northern latitudes, to be compared in succeeding ages, and also to have marks cut upon rocks in the sea to show the proper level of the water.