INTRODUCTORY ACCOUNT OF THE INLE LAKE. 



By N. Annandale, D.Sc, F.A.S.B., Director. Zoological 

 Survey of India. 



( With Map. ) 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Geography of the lake — 

 Situation of the lake 

 Dimensions . 

 Water 



Nature of the shore 

 Floating Islands , 

 Nature of the bottom 



Structure of the surrounding country 



The Limestone Zone of the Shan Plateau 



Superficial Deposits 



Red soil 



Peaty deposits 



Grey clay . 



Recent tufa 



Calcareous dams . 

 Origin and history of the lake 



Page. 



1 

 2 



2 

 3 

 3 

 3 



4 

 5 

 5 



Geography of the Lake. 



The Inle Lake^ lies in the State of Yawnghwe on the Shan Plateau at 



a height of 3,000 feet above sea-level, in Lat. 20° 35' N., Long. 96° 57'E. 



It is thus well within the Tropics but at an altitude 

 Situation of the Lake. •■> . x- x xi, • i £ x -it x 



that mitigates the violence of a tropical climate. 



The lake occupies the central part of a trough between two ranges of 

 hills, which, like all the ranges of that part of Burma, run almost 

 due north and south. At its two ends, and to a lesser extent on the 

 western side, alluvial plains have been formed, and are gradually extend- 

 ing outwards into the water. Several streams run through the northern 

 plain and combine in the swampy ground between land and water. 

 None of these streams are of any great size. They come from the north 

 and from the west ; one of the most important of them flows from a 

 dried lake-basin situated only a few miles to the north-west of the Inle 

 Lake but 800 feet higher. This stream makes its way with a very sudden 

 drop through a narrow gorge in the hills. The dried lake-basin, to which 

 I shall have to refer frequently, is the He-Ho plain. On the western 



^ InU means the " Lake (in) of the Four " (U), The name is said to be derived from 

 a league of four villages which at some troublous period of history made themselves in- 

 dependent of the local Shan chief. 



B 



