36 



is interesting to read in Gr.O., No. 293, June 1883 (Marine), 

 tliat, when His Excellency the Governor lauded in 1878 at 

 Kistnapatam in order to visit Nellore, this mud bank gave 

 effectual protection to the steamer " Khandalla " from the 

 violence of a evclone which came on while the steamer was 

 awaiting His Excellency's return and which was very severely 

 felt from Madras to Masulipatarn. Captain Taylor, the then 

 Master Attendant of Madras, in relating this experience says 

 u I remained at anchor in the ' Khandalla ' upon this mud 

 " bank and though the sea was unusually high outside, and 

 " the centre of the storm passed very near, bursting on the 

 " coast at Ongole, and doing great mischief, we did not experi- 

 ence any discomfort, the sea being reduced to a long lazy 

 44 swell." 



Between the Kandaleru and Penncru rivers, the Kodur 

 river, Gangapatam backwater and Nallateru river enter the 

 sea, but as their bars are open only intermittently after floods, 

 they are valueless as fishing boat centres. 



7. The next place examined was the mouth of the Penneru 

 river, 90 miles north of Madras. This river is one of consi- 

 derable size and its bar never closes. Unlike the Kandaleru, 

 the river mouth is not always in the same place, and at times 

 of flood there may be several openings; this lack of concentration 

 renders the scour of floods much less effective than it should 

 be and as a consequence the river estuary (or backwater) is very 

 liable to silting. In many places in the channel where I 

 sounded at about low tide on 16th September 1908 the depth 

 was as low as 2~ feet. On this day at one hour before high 

 water the least depth on the bar was 5 feet, which should 

 give G feet at high-water. In spring tides at least another 

 foot should be available or a total of 7 feet against the 

 9 feet in 1883 which Marshall gives in his " Handbook of 

 Directions to the Ports in the Presidency of Madras." As 

 already mentioned the position and formation of the bar are 

 unstable ; sometimes there is but one opening to sea, sometimes 

 several. On the day I visited it, the width of the single mouth 

 was too great to permit of a good scour and the best channel 

 over the bar was of considerable length, passing for some 

 distance parallel with the shore between two lines of surf. A 

 rather heavy surf extended a considerable distance seawards, 

 as though there were a lengthy stretch of shoal water off 

 the entrance to the river. 



Altogether the bar appeared somewhat " ugly " and not 

 one that I should feel safe in attempting in any fishing boat 

 other than a catamaran. It may well be that at other seasons 

 the bar channel is shorter and more favourably situated ; that 



