I 9 I 5-] Fauna of the Chilka Lake : Introduction. 3 



The inner side of the main area has a far more varied character. For some 

 miles north-east of Barkul, almost to the point at which the delta of the branches of 

 the Mahanaddi may be said to commence, the shore consists of a series of little bays 

 separated by headlands of the kind described above Most of these headlands are 

 spurs running out from a range of rocky hills that lies almost parallel to and at no 

 great distance from this shore; others are isolated fragments of the same formation. 

 Between the promontories the edge of the lake is flat and resembles that of the 

 outer shore of the same area, except that the proportion of mud to sand is greater 

 at most points and the slope a little less gentle ; single rocks and groups of stones, 

 most of which are left entirely bare in winter, occur sparingly; the grass that covers 

 the shore is short and coarse. 



South-west of Barkul point, which forms a lower and less pyramidal promontory 

 than those that lie to the north-east, there are several wider bays in which the 

 margin is of a similar kind, but without the headlands 



The south (strictly south-west) end of the lake is occupied by two long and 

 rather narrow bays separated by a mass of rocky hills, the highest of which, a 

 regular pyramid named Ganta Sua, rises almost straight from the water to a height 

 of over 500 feet and is one of the most conspicuous land-marks over the greater part 

 of the whole area. Round its base single rocks of considerable size form what may 

 almost be called small cliffs ; when the lake is flooded or moderately full the water 

 round them is several feet deep, but in spring and early summer a narrow muddy 

 foreshore is left bare in front of them. The shores of the two bays resemble those 

 adjacent to them. 



Near the south-western corner of the outer bay lies the mouth of a small canal 

 that formerly ran to the town of Ganjam, which is connected by another canal with 

 the Bay of Bengal. The Chilka-Ganjam canal is now, however, completely blocked 

 up and the locks with which it was provided must always have rendered any direct 

 communication between the lacustrine fauna and that of the sea practically im- 

 possible. 



The inner shore of the outer channel, except in the immediate neighbourhood of 

 the sea-opening, resembles the outer shore of the lagoon. The bar that separates the 

 channel from the Bay of Bengal is, however, composed almost entirely of clean 

 sea-sand sloping down into the water, and it is only at the point at which the 

 channel turns landwards, and in particular opposite Barhampur Id., that the margin 

 becomes muddy or swampy. 



The only streams of any size that find their way into the lake are the branches 

 of the Mahanaddi that enter the north-eastern part of the main area, for the hills 

 that run parallel to the inner shore are practically waterless for the greater part of 

 the year and even at the southern end the small water-courses dry up more or less 

 completely by the beginning of the hot weather. 



In the main area of the lake there are a number of rocky islands of different 

 sizes, none of them really large, that have a certain biological importance in that 



