OK CI3TTACK. ■ 187 



sioned by the bursting of one of these large bunds is generally most seri- 

 ous. The torrent rushes through with a frightful roar and velocity, tearing 

 up trees by the roots, prostrating houses, and washing clean away every 

 trace of th e labours of the peasantry. The devastations of the flood too 



are in general more permanently commemorated, by a deposit of coarse 

 sand, which renders the soil in the neighbourhood of the breach, unfit for 

 tillage for years afterwards. 



The Chilka lake forms too material a feature in the geography of Orissa 

 Proper, to be passed over unnoticed in this paper. The general opinion of 

 Europeans, on a casual inspection, has been that it was formed by an irruption 

 of the ocean, and it is worthy of remark that the native histories record the oc- 

 currenceof such an event, about the beginning of the third century of the Chris- 

 tian sera, to which they universally ascribe the formation of the Chilka. It is 

 separated from the sea for many miles by a long narrow strip of sand, sel- 

 dom more than three hundred yards in breadth, and discharges its waters by 

 an outfall, which has been lately excavated about a mile north of Manikpa- 

 tam, the old one having become nearly choked up with sand. Its form is 

 very irregular, the greatest diameters measuring from N. E. to S. W. thirty- 

 live, and from E. by N. to W. by S. eighteen miles. To the southward, it is 

 divided into numerous narrow channels by large inhabited islands, and 

 for a long way it can scarcely be distinguished from the channel of the 

 Harchandi, which flows into it. The general depth is about four or five 

 feet, greatest depth six feet ; and it is considered to be rapidly filling up 

 from the sand and mud brought into it by the Daya, Bhargabi, and vari- 

 ous smaller streams, which empty their waters into that basin. The Per- 

 gunnahs Rahang, Seraen, Chowbiskud, Killahs Roreng, Kokla, Khurda, 

 and the Jagir of Kerar Mohammed, encircle or touch its shores for nearly 

 two-thirds of the whole circumference. On the Ganjam side the hill estates 

 of Calicote and Palur occupy the remaining interval. The lake is valu- 

 able to the Company for the salt which it yields, called Karkach, obtained 

 by solar evaporation, of which nearly two lacs of mands are obtained 



X 2 



