PURI AND KANARAK 61 



rag to gird round them, and nothing in the way of 

 property except a fishing-net, a few earthen pots, and 

 perhaps a primitive boat made of rough logs rudely 

 tied together with string, yet they need not be pitied 

 over much, for they have the heritage of the sea — 

 which here is inexhaustible — all to themselves. 



Along this piece of coast we had melancholy 

 evidence of the need for a survey, in the shape of 

 six fine sailing-ships lying broken on the shore, four 

 of them having been wrecked in a space of two years. 

 Some say that the currents, which certainly set in 

 very strong hereabouts, were to blame for this ; but 

 others think that insufficient use of the lead, the result 

 of undermanning, may possibly have been the cause. 

 It is certain, too, that distances are very hard to 

 judge on a low-lying seaboard, where the only objects 

 to guide the eye are scrubby trees about 15 feet 



high. 



The town of Puri is of such unassuming propor- 

 tions that the inhabitants, as if fearing to be passed 

 by, have set up its name on a board upon the beach 

 like a railway station ; but the domes of the neigh- 

 bouring temple of Jaganath are conspicuous land- 

 marks for sailors. 



We did not see very much of this temple, partly 

 because we were there for work and not for show- 

 gazing, but chiefiy because the priests, like Jaques 

 with Orlando, desire to be better strangers with their 



