AN ISLAND IN THE CHILKA LAKE. 259 



I. PHYSIOGRAPHY OF THE ISLAND. 



Geographicai. Position and Area. 



The little island of Barkuda or Barakuda is one of many that stud the surface of 

 the Chilka Lake on the east coast of India. Its geographical position is lat. I9°38'N., 

 long. 85°i2'E. and it lies in the north-eastern apex of the Madras Presidency just 

 across the Orissa border. 



The lake ^ is a maritime one, connected with the Bay of Bengal by a narrow 

 mouth and consisting of a complex outer channel and a broad main area some forty 

 miles long. It is in the main area, towards its inner (south-western) extremity, that 

 Barkuda is situated. The water* of this area varies greatly in salinity with time and 

 season. At Barkuda it is never quite fresh, but never nearly as salt as that of the 

 open sea, and is not affected at any season by the tides. The lake is shallow over its 

 whole area and at no point in the vicinity of the island more than 15 feet deep. 



Barkuda is separated from the mainland of the western shore of the lake by a 

 channel just a mile broad, but that which separates it from the larger, alluvial island 

 of Samalkuda, which in dry weather becomes a peninsula owing to the desiccation of 

 the narrow strait between it and the mainland, is less than half as broad. Samalkuda 

 lies north and north-east of Barkuda. Almost due west, at a distance of about half a 

 mile, lies another island, Cherriakuda, which is of similar size and formation to 

 Barkuda. From the sandy outer shore of the lake Barkuda is separated by at least 

 three miles of open water and from the head of Rambha Bay, the south-western 

 extremity of the whole system, by nearly five. 



In outline Barkuda is a right-angled triangle with the apex pointing nearly south- 

 east. Its longest side is about three-quarters of a mile in length and its shortest less 

 than half as long. Its total area is less than half a square mile. 



The island is thus isolated so far as purely terrestrial animals are concerned, but 

 well within the range of insects even of rather feeble flight, and also of many seeds. 



CIvIMATE. 



No very precise data are available as to the climate of the Chilka Lake, which is 

 subject to obvious local peculiarities and apparently varies considerably at different 

 spots in respect both to temperature and rainfall. The whole area lies well within 

 the isothermal lines representing 79° and 80° Fahr.'^ and within the region affected 

 directly by the south-west monsoon. The climate is, therefore, tropical, but Barkuda 

 has a more equable temperature than that of the mainland, a mile or two away. The 

 heat is less in summer and the air is warmer in winter. This is doubtless due to its 

 insular position. 



The following particulars about the rainfall at Rambha, five miles south-west 

 of the island, are extracted from the official reports of the Imperial Meteorological 



I See Annandale and Kemp, Mem. Ind. Mus. V, p. i (1915). 



^ See Annandale and Kemp, 0/5. cit. and Sewell, Mem. Ind. Mus., torn. cit. (incd. 



'■'> See Eliot. Climatological Atlas of India, pi. xlix. 



