299
KOLABA DISTRICT.
Area ... ... ...
Population in 1891
Density of population
Rainfall ... ...
L ..
2,128 sq. miles.
594,872.
279-55 per sq. mile.
Average 80 inches.
Boundaries.
Kolába, with, a length of about seventy miles from north to south, and a breadth
of from fifteen to thirty from east to west, is bounded
on the north and north-east by Bombay Harbour and Thána ;
on the east by Poona and the Bhor State; on the south and south-west by Ratnágiri;
and on the west by Janjira.
Climate and natural features.
The year may be roughly divided into four seasons, the rains from June to October,
the damp hot weather in October and November, the cold
weather from December to March, and the dry hot weather
from March to June. The climate of Alibág differs somewhat from the rest of the
District. It is free from hot winds, and has almost always some sea breeze.
Either a little before or a little after the beginning of October the south-west wind
drops and the rain ceases. Clouds continue to hang about : occasionally, with a warm
wind from the east, there are severe thunderstorms. The air is charged with electricity,
the sea breeze fails, and the nights are close and oppressive. This is the unhealthiest
part of the year. The climate, though feverish and relaxing, is perhaps less relaxing
than Ratnagiri and less feverish than Thána. The chief health advantages of the coast
tract are the equable climate, the fresh sea breeze, and the comparatively good water.
Along the coast the sun is seldom oppressive, and the nights, though cool, are not often
cold. There are four chief varieties of soil : diluvial and alluvial, powdered latérite and trap,
clayey mould resting on trap, and soil containing marine deposits with much sand and
other matter in concretion. Of these the first, which is composed of various disintegrated
rocks of the overlying trap formation, with u varying proportion of calcareous substance,
is at once the richest and the most widespread. It is red, yellow or black in colour, crumbly,
and from the drainage of hill streams, free from salt.
Previeras epidemics.
Malaria is the prevailing cause of disease; and there
is no authentic record of plague in this District previous
to 1896.*
Kolába District.
Population—594,872.
First Epidemic (February 1897—July 1897).—The Kolába District was, from its
vicinity to Bombay, peculiarly liable to infection ; and it was
not long before indigenous plague established itself there.
The infection was directly. traceable to cases imported from
Bombay, of which as many as 41—all but one fatal—were discovered between October 1896
and January 1897 ; and it is noteworthy that, although no very strict or scientific method
of segregation or disinfection was adopted, the infection in each case died with the patient ;
for plague did not establish itself in the District in an indigenous form until the beginning
of February 1897, when Uran and Panvel Were attacked. It then spread more or less
rapidly, and towards the latter part of March attacked Alibág, the head-quarters of the
District, where it remained for the space of two months. In April 1897, Alibág, Panvel,
the Theronda hamlets in Eevdanda, and Murud in the Janjira State, had to grapple with a
* Bombay Guzetteer, Vol. XI.