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drawing between 2 and 3 feet. The draft of cargo boats is 

 usually restricted to 2 feet as on this they are able to cross the 

 bar at any state of the tide in fair weather. .Native craft of 

 200 tons and drawing 5 feet occasionally enter the river 

 at high water for repairs. 



At present comparatively little fishing is carried on as the 

 Patnavar Chettiar who form the fisher caste here get such 

 regular and well paid wages as boatmen that they prefer such 

 work to the uncertain remuneration and hard life inseparable 

 from the fishing industry as now carried on. Still men in 

 plenty are available to man fishing boats if regular wages or 

 other equal inducement offer. 



9. Porto Novo at the mouth of the Vellar river and about 

 11 miles south of Cnddalore has almost equal advantages with 

 the latter port. On the day I visited the harbour very little 

 surf was breaking on the bar ; the channel over was easy with 

 about the same depth of water as upon the Cuddalore bar. 

 A small quay convenient for the rapid handling of cargo is 

 situated half a mile above the bar and about two miles by 

 road from the railway station. 



On the date of my visit two channels over the bar were 

 in use, one, the more direct, used by the smaller lighters, the 

 other and longer which runs northwards instead of directly 

 eastwards, by larger craft. Several coasting vessels were laid 

 up in the river, among them a brig of 150 tons waiting a good 

 spring tide to cross the bar. Fishing craft drawing 3 feet 

 should be able to enter the river at high water every day 

 throughout the vear, while if thev draw 6 inches less thev should 

 be able to enter at almost any hour except dead low water. 

 One great advantage which Porto Novo has as a fishing centre 

 is that the roadstead or anchorage off the port enjoys excellent 

 shelter in southerly winds owing to the large shoal off the 

 Coleroon river which breaks the swell. The bottom is mud 

 and affords good holding ground. Until of late years Porto 

 Novo was much frequented by native coasting craft ; the 

 gradual opening of the coast railway and the competition of 

 Cuddalore have combined to divert traffic and Porto Novo in 

 its present melancholy state of decay, like so many towns on 

 this East Coast, is evidence of the frequently baneful local 

 effects entailed by that centralization m commerce which 

 has been one of the most marked changes wrought by the 

 introduction of steam. 



10. The S6 miles of coast from Porto Novo to Point 

 Calimere, is one monotonous stretch of low sandy land 

 presenting a straight front to the sea. At frequent intervals 

 streams and rivers intersect it, nearly always with a town or 



