2 Memoirs of the Indian Museum. [Vol. V, 



finally reaches the main area at the point called Mugger-Mukh l (Shark mouth) . 

 In the flood-season this is one of two openings into the main area, for there is another 

 south-west of the large flat island of Barnikuda which lies in the midst of the inner 

 part of the channel; but even the opening at Mugger-Mukh becomes extremely 

 shallow in the dry season, while the other disappears altogether. In March there is 

 not more than a foot and a half of water on the bar at the former point - 



The main area of the Chilka Lake is the real lagoon and occupies by far the 

 greater part of the lake-system. It is roughly pear-shaped, the longer axis running 

 south-west and north-east. Its length is about forty miles in the height of the dry 

 season and its greatest breadth about twelve and a half miles. The broadest point 

 is situated toward the north-east extremity. 



The shores of the Chilka Lake have considerable variety of character. Smooth 



green lawns, diversified by clumps of trees, slope down 



Shores, streams and islands. . ., 



to the water s edge : rocky headlands rise as pyramids, 

 seemingly composed of loose boulders piled one on another with bamboos and other 

 vegetation springing up in the interstices; islands, some bare and rocky, others like 

 the headlands, others again low and sandy, rise from the surface of the water; naked 

 sand-hills contrast with the dark green foliage in which fishing villages lie hidden. 



On a near approach the green lawns are not attractive, for in dry weather their 

 margins are edged with decaying weed and in the rainy season lie deep in evil- 

 smelling mud : the headlands and islands are difficult of access at all times of the 

 year. Our present business, however, is not to discuss the beauties or the discom- 

 forts of the Chilka Lake but to describe the features of its shores that have a bearing, 

 direct or indirect, on the nature and distribution of its fauna. 



At the northern end of the main area the silt brought down by several branches 

 of the Mahanaddi system, of which the most important is the Dayanaddi, has 

 formed a margin so ill-defined that, when the floods are high and the water in con- 

 sequence fresh, there is no perceptible boundary between rice-fields and lake; the 

 former terminate only at the point at which the water becomes too deep for rice to 

 grow. As the water-level sinks in late autumn wide stretches of muddy foreshore 

 are left bare. 



Along the outer side of this area, as the distance from the mouth of the streams 

 increases, a large quantity of sea-sand is mixed with the mud, and even where the 

 proportion of alluvium present is very small, the periodic decay of vegetation and 

 the fine silt usually held in suspension in the water but deposited when a dead calm 

 prevails, produce a thinner or thicker layer of mud above the sand. Along the 

 whole of this shore the extent of mud or sand left bare when the water sinks is con- 

 siderable and the depth of the lake at and near the margin extremely small, to be 

 measured in inches rather than feet. 



1 In several Indian dialects the word "mugger" (more correctly magar) means crocodile; but 

 the Uriya fishermen of the Chilka Lake use it to signify either a crocodile, a porpoise or a shark. The 

 last is sometimes distinguished as magar-mach and the porpoise {Orcella brevirostrls) as sus-magar . 



