19 



far as I can recollect, were all mullet. Like all wild things about 

 that glorious bit of almost unknown water, these otters did not 

 appear t0 dread man ; when they rose, as they often did close to the 

 canoe, each took a bold look before it dived again, generally while 

 up, uttering short, sharp squeaks. I shot the largest of the band and 

 (as I deserved, for the act was useless and wanton) lost him. The 

 others however fished on in the same order well out to open sea, for 

 the Chilka lake is little short of that until I left them ; my boatman 

 being too exhausted at the pace he had to push the little canoe 

 along to keep near them to follow further. I have seen three or 

 four otters that would follow their master like a dog, and had one 

 that would do so, keeping up all the time a series of most unrea- 

 sonable and annoying squeaks. 



I trust that I may be excused if I attempt to describe the Chilka 

 lake : for even among Indians, there may be many who have not a 

 very distinct idea of its extent or even where it is. 



This magnificent piece of water, I speak only as a sportsman or 

 as a lover of wild life and wild scenery, divides tRe Ganjam district, 

 the extreme limit of the Madras Presidency in the direction of the 

 Northern Circars, from the Bengal province of Cuttack, and may in 

 rough terms be said to extend nearly from Ganjam to Juggernaut, 

 that ill-famed focus of Orissa idolatry. It thus runs pretty nearly 

 north and south, parallel to the Bay of Bengal, from which on the 

 eastern shore it is only separated by a neck or ridge of sand hills 

 not much more than a mile broad ; now only known to pursuers of 

 wild fowl, antelope or foxes, and to the few pilgrims from the south 

 who still take that road to Juggernaut. In former days it had an 

 evil name however, for it was infested by a band of Thugs, who 

 lived by plundering and murdering pilgrims going to the temples ; 

 coming from Juggernaut, after priests and holy men had secured 

 their dues, there probably did not remain much worth stealing. 

 A batch of these Thugs had been, as was the good old custom, 

 executed upon the spot where their crimes had been committed and 

 their bodies, suspended in iron cages, once adorned an immense gib- 

 bet which stands, or stood, at Priaghee near the south-eastern corner 

 of the lake ; and under which my servants, looking more to a dry 

 spot than the propriety of the measure, once pitched my little 



