In process of time these banks of sand[1] become covered with vegetation; herbaceous plants, shrubs, and finally trees peculiar to saline soils make their appearance in succession, and as these decay, their decomposition generates a sufficiency of soil to sustain continued vegetation.
1: In the voyages of The Two Mahometans, the unique MS. of which dates about A.D. 851, and is now in the Bibliothèque Royale at Paris, Abon-zeyd, one of its authors, describes the "Gobbs" of Ceylon—a word, he says, by which the natives designate the valleys deep and broad which open to the sea. "En face de cette íle y a de vastes Gobb, mot par lequel on désigne une vallée, quand elle est à la fois longue et large, et qu'elle débouche dans la mer. Les navigateurs emploient, pour traverser le gobb appelé 'Gobb de Serendib,' deux mois et même davantage, passant à travers des bois et des jardins, au milieu d'une température moyenne."—REINAUD, Voyages faits par les Arabes, vol. i. p. 129.
A misapprehension of this passage has been admitted into the English version of the Voyages of the two Mahometans which is published in PINKERTON'S Collections of Voyages and Travels, vol. iii.; the translator having treated gobb as a term applicable to valleys in general. "Ceylon," he says, "contains valleys of great length, which extend to the sea, and here travellers repair for two months or more, in which one is called Gobb Serendib, allured by the beauty of the scenery, chequered with groves and plains, water and meadows, and blessed by a balmy air. The valley opens to the sea, and is transcendently pleasant."—PINKERTON'S Voyages, vol. vii. p. 218.
But a passage in Edrisi, while it agrees with the terms of Abou-zeyd, explains at the same time that these gobbs were not valleys converted into gardens, to which the seamen resorted for pleasure to spend two or three months, but the embouchures of rivers flowing between banks, covered with gardens and forests, into which mariners were accustomed to conduct their vessels for more secure navigation, and in which they were subjected to detention for the period stated. The passage is as follows in Jaubert's translation of Edrisi, tom. i. p. 73:—"Cette île (Serendib) depend des terres de l'Inde; ainsi que les vallées (in orig. aghbab) par lesquelles se dechargent les rivières, et qu'on nomme 'Vallées de Serendib.' Les navires y mouillent, et les navigateurs y passent un mois ou deux dans l'abondance et dans les plaisirs."
It is observable that Ptolemy, in enumerating the ports and harbours of Ceylon, maintains a distinction between the ordinary bays, [Greek: kolpos], of which he specifies two corresponding to those of Colombo and Trincomalie, and the shallower indentations, [Greek: limên], of which he enumerates five, the positions of which go far to identify them with the remarkable estuaries or gobbs, on the eastern and western coast between Batticaloa and Calpentyn.
To the present day these latter gulfs are navigable for small craft. On the eastern side of the island one of them forms the harbour of Batticaloa, and on the western those of Chilaw and Negombo are bays of this class. Through the latter a continuous navigation has been completed by means of short connecting canals, and a traffic is maintained during the south-west monsoon, from Caltura to the north of Chilaw, a distance of upwards of eighty miles, by means of craft which navigate these shallow channels.
These narrow passages conform in every particular to the description given by Abou-zeyd and Edrisi: they run through a succession of woods and gardens; and as a leading wind is indispensable for their navigation, the period named by the Arabian geographers for their passage is perhaps not excessive during calms or adverse winds.
An article on the meaning of the word gobb will be found in the Journal Asiatique for September, 1844; but it does not exhibit clearly the very peculiar features of these openings. It is contained in an extract from the work on India of ALBYROUNI, a contemporary of Avicenna, who was born in the valley of the Indus.—"Un golfe (gobb) est comme une encoignure et un détour que fait la mer en pénétrant dans le continens: les navires n'y sont pas sans péril particulièrement à l'égard du flux et reflux."—Extrait de l'ouvrage d' ALBYROUNI sur l'Inde; Fragmens Arabes et Persans, relatifs à l'Inde, recueillés par M. REINAUD; Journ. Asiat., Septembre et Octobre, 1844, p. 261. In the Turkish nautical work of SIDI ALI CHELEBI, the Mohit, written about A.D. 1550, which contains directions for sailors navigating the eastern seas, the author alludes to the gobbha's on the coast of Arracan; and conscious that the term was local not likely to be understood beyond those countries, he adds that "gobbha" means "a gulf full of shallows, shoals, and breakers." See translation by VON HAMMER, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng. v. 466.
The process of this conversion may be seen in all its stages at various points along the coast of Ceylon.
The margin of land nearest to the water is first taken possession of by a series of littoral plants, which apparently require a large quantity of salt to sustain their vegetation. These at times are intermixed with others, which, though found further inland, yet flourish in perfection on the shore. On the northern and north-western coasts the glass worts[1] and salt worts[2] are the first to appear on the newly raised banks, and being provided with penetrating roots, a breakwater is thus early secured, and the drier sand above becomes occupied with creeping plants which in their turn afford shelter to a third and erect class.