j 4 king: nellore portion of the carnatic. 



small streams in having formed the great unbroken stretch of alluvium 

 here lying along the whole coast. The courses of these rivers in their 

 alluvial fiats all trend to the north-east, or with the prevalent currents 



along the coast. 



The most remarkable feature of the coast connected with the alluvial 

 The Pulicat Lake and deposits is the extensive, but very shallow, hollow 

 its origin. £ the Pulicat Lake, which has only one small 



stream flowing into it near Sulurpet, while the Narnaveram river at the 

 extreme south end keeps it open to the sea. One way of accounting for 

 the existence of lagoons such as the present, is that a hollow must have 

 been left in the contiguous alluviums of two rivers which was eventually 

 lapped round by their outspreading and rising deposits, though still kept 

 open by minor streams flowing into it. Such is apparently the condition 

 of things which went on in the formation of the Coiair Lake between the 

 Godavari and Kistna deltas. But in the case of the Pulicat Lake 

 there is no such evident leaving of a hollow between the great rivers, 

 though the suggestion that this is an analogous case to that of the Coiair 

 Lake is more valid if we suppose that a considerable area of alluvial land 

 has possibly been removed from the eastern side, and that the Swarna- 

 mukhi and Palar (in the Madras district) may have been the great allu- 

 vial distributors to the north and south. 



The small extent and shortness of the delta of the Penner when 

 considered with regard to the length and drainage area of this large 

 river and the generally even width of the alluvial belt along the coast, 

 seem to point also to the former existence of alluvial land considerably 

 to the eastward of the present coast line. It is to be noted that though 

 six great rivers, viz., the Cauvery, Pennar, Palar, Penner, Kistna, and 

 Godavari, flow out on the Coromandel, yet only three of these have 

 decided and extensive deltas ; the next largest, the Penner, having only a 

 very small one as proportioned to its importance, in fact, as I suppose, 

 a reduced delta, while seaward shoals are prevalent along the adjacent 

 coast, especially at Armogamor 1 and opposite Ramiapatam and Ongole 

 further to the north. 



1 The " shoal is about 10 miles long, the shallowest part is If fathoms ; and it lies 

 from 3i to 5£ miles east-by-north of the light-house."— Manual of the Nellore District. 

 ( 1&2 ) 



