35 



brought ashore through the wildest surf, in the ease with 

 which its parts may be taken apart and carried up the beach 

 and afterwards reassembled, the catamaran is certainly the 

 most serviceable craft for use on a surf-beaten coast. For 250 

 miles south of Madras and for a considerably greater distance 

 to the north, practically no other craft is employed in fishing ; 

 the larger ones carry three or four men each and are furnished 

 with a well-barked permauent sail of fair proportions. 



No notable headlands break the monotony of the coast 

 line from Point Calimere to long past the Penneru ; the only 

 available harbours excepting Madras, are those formed by the 

 estuaries of the larger rivers, and of these a large proportion 

 become useless for the greater part of the fine weather fishing 

 season, the south-west monsoon period, owing to closure of 

 the bars brought about by the silting action of strong long- 

 shore currents running northwards acting concurrently with a 

 cessation of river flow, the consequence of drought. Between 

 Madras and the Swarnamukhi river, 60 miles north of Madras, 

 the estuaries of all the rivers and backwaters are liable to close 

 during the hot season, and even when they do remain open the 

 depth of water over the bars is too low to prevent of ready 

 ingress and egress in the case of boats of several feet draught ; 

 north of the Swarnamukhi river all bars remain open continu- 

 ously, but so far I have been able to examine two only, the 

 Kandaleru and Penneru rivers. The former estuary, 70 miles 

 north of Madras, constitutes the old harbour of Kistnapatam, 

 a place of considerable importance in the coasting trade till the 

 rise of the Buckingham Canal and the completion of the coast 

 railway diverted traffic into new channels. Thirty years ago 

 it w r as the port of Nellore and native craft of considerable 

 burden, and drawing as much as 9 feet of water, entered the 

 river for repairs, the repairing sheds being situated along the 

 margin of the deep water Tying west of the present forest 

 bungalow; the estuary itself is of ample depth, in places over 

 25 feet, and has excellent road communication with Nellore, 

 17 miles distant. In 1833 it was credited with having a depth 

 of 11 feet of water on the bar at high spring tides. 



The condition of the river at the present day is somewhat 

 less favourable; on the occasion of my visit, which coincided 

 with high water of a spring tide, the greatest depth on the 

 bar was 7f feet ; as the range of tide is from o to 3J feet, at low 

 tide 4 J to 4| feet would be the best water available. Apart 

 from this, the position of the river mouth may be said to be 

 permanent, while the estuary is less liable to silting than any 

 other on the Coromandel Coast. A mud bank formerly existed 

 off this port (I do not know whether it still remains), and it 



