16 



in them, and the general surface water level was a plane inclined at an 

 angle to the backwaters into which the respective portions of canal 

 were draining." 



A repetition of abnormally low levels in the lake occurred 

 in 1896 consequent upon the closing of the bar during the 

 hot weather of the preceding year ; in this case, however, 

 although the bar remained closed for a longer period, the 

 lowest level recorded, 2-66 feet below mean sea level in August 

 1896, was higher by a foot than the minimum of 1891. With 

 shrinkage on the scale denoted by even the lesser of these 

 instances the appearauce of the lake becomes entirely changed 

 from what it is under the normal conditions prevailing now. 

 Instead of a vast and continuous sheet of water extending: from 

 Karimanal across to Annamalaicheri and thence north-west 

 to Tada and north to Kasuba kuppam, a great plain of salt 

 encrusted mud occupies almost the whole of the area between 

 Yenadn and Irakam Islands on the one side and the Buckingham 

 canal on the other ; on the west of Venadu were it not for the 

 softness of the mud, one conld walk across to Tada with water 

 never reaching above the ankles. West and south of Irakam a 

 considerable area of shallows carrying from 1 to 1§ feet of 

 water remains. Elsewhere the lake becomes reduced to a 

 narrow and relatively deep canal extending westwards from 

 the closed bar, past Karimanal and thence northwards to join 

 the shallow expanse south oud south-east of Irakam Island. 

 Within the bounds of this deeper channel gather the whole of 

 the larg;e fish remaining; in the lake, making; hevdav for the 

 fishermen.* 



Whenever the lake closes during the hot w r eather season, the 

 canal authorities carefully note the rise in level during the 

 ensuing north-east monsoon ; as soon as the lake rises to one 

 foot above highest spring tide, means are at once taken to open 

 the bar by cutting through the sandbank which has closed its 

 mouth. If the cut be completed at low tide, the head of flood 

 water pouring through the opening scours a deep passage, 

 which thereafter is kept open and deepened by successive floods 

 and by the scour of the ebb tide. 



Should the monsoon rains not be heavy, the flood level of 

 the lake may never rise sufficiently high to give the requisite 



* In passing it is worth noting that in the dry season of 1905 when a similar 

 concent ration of fish occurred in the remaining decp9, it is said that a party of West 

 Coast fishermen arrived with a large seine and swept the contracted waters of the Pulicat 

 and other similarly shrunken backwaters, netting within a few days immense quantities 

 of fish and securing great profit. Opposition to this action was overcome hy gifts of 

 some of the small fish caught and the enterprising strangers were gone before the local 

 men cimc to realise that their lake or backwater was depleted of large sized fish. 



