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 detour que fait la mer en penetrant dans le continens: les navires n'y sont pas sans peril particulierement a l'egard du flux et reflux."-- _Extrait de l'ouvrage d'_ ALBYROUNI _sur l'Inde; Fragmens Arabes et Persans, relatifs a l'Inde, recueilles 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.

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