2C EASTERN H I N D O O S T A N. 



twenty miles dilrance, the water deepens to fifty fathoms, and 

 a Httle farther to fixty or feventy. Midway between I'ran- 

 qiiebar and the Kicobar ifles, there is no ground to be found 

 with feven hundred fathoms of line. I may inchide the whole 



CoRoMANDEL coall of Coro'iHandel under this defcription, an extent of not left 

 than four hundred miles, reaching from Calyjuere point to the 

 mouth of the KiJInab. On all the fhore breaks a moft dange- 

 rous and high furf, which appals the ftouteft feaman; no 

 European boat can attempt to land. The Catamarans or boats 

 are of a particular conftrudion, being formed without ribs or 

 keel, with flat bottoms, and having their planks fewed together ; 

 iron being totally excluded throughout the whole fabric. By this 

 conftruiftion they are rendered flexible enough to elude the 

 effe<5ls of the violent Ihocks which they receive, by the dafhing 

 of the waves or furf on the beach, and which either overfets 

 or breaks to pieces a boat o^ European conftruftion. 



Pagoda OF Chi- The pagoda of Cbilambaram is the moft celebrated for its 

 fandity of any in India ; it is placed a little to the fouth of 

 Porto Novo, in Lat. ii°.' All thofe on this coaft are built on the 

 fame plan ; a large area of a fquare form, bounded by a wall 

 fifteen or twenty feet high; within are feveral temples or cha- 

 pels, inferior in height to the precindl, as if they were meant 

 to be concealed from vulgar eyes, hi the middle of the fides 

 of the wall is one or more gateways, over which is built a lofty 

 tower, of a pyramidal form. That at Chilajnbaram is truncated 

 ait top, and finiQies with an ornament. The fronts of the 

 towers are adorned with infinite numbers of fculptures, ufually 

 of the deities, and their wild hiftory, and ofteatiuies with 

 t animals 



