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PLACES OF INTEREST
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PORTS
Ports.-The Ratnagiri seaboard, stretching north and south for
160 miles, contains 20 ports and harbours. Of these nine -Bankot, Harnai Chiplun, Sangmeshvar, Ratnagiri, Rajapur, Kharepatan, Malvan and Vengurle-are places of some trade and consequence; the rest are small, offering during the fair season more or less complete shelter to coasting craft, but with little or no trade.
Ratnagiri ports are of two classes, coastal ports on sheltered days and river mouths, and inland ports up tidal creeks generally at the point where navigation ceases. Dabhol in former times, and now Ratnagiri Malvan and Vengurle are exceptions. But from the rug-gedness of the inland country, and in former times from their freedom from pirate attacks, trade had always centred at the inland harbours, The coast settlements have been little more than fishing villages with, in the fair season, some stranger merchants and small traffic, chiefly in salt and grain.
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