208 ZOOLOGICAL GLEANINGS 



where our survey was to be carried on southwards, 

 in continuation of the work of the year before, and 

 in this desolate part of the world we remained for 

 three months, until the middle of April, surveying 

 the deltas of the Godavari and Kistna. 



I have already, in speaking of the dangerous 

 Sacramento shoal which lies off one of the mouths 

 of the Goddvari, said something of the peculiarly 

 dismal character of this piece of coast, where the sea 

 is often so shallow and the land so low that the ship 

 cannot come in near enough to see survey-marks 

 ashore, and where, as a consequence, her positions 

 have to be fixed by triangulation from beacons moored 

 far out amid the shoals. Such a sea, full of mud and 

 richly charged with organic matter from the land, of 

 course abounds in animal life of certain kinds, such 

 as crustaceans, fishes, and sea-snakes ; but it is of 

 little use to trawl for them, as the trawl only sinks 

 into the soft bottom and gets choked, so that in 

 default of better occupation, I was often obliged to 

 make a day's work out of the washings from the 

 tow-net. Whenever I could land and get among the 

 native fishermen, who at this fine season of the year 

 haul enormous seines all along the coast, I did so, much 

 to my benefit ; and on many occasions I attached myself 

 to a coast-lining party, in the hope of finding something 

 worth having along the beach, or of getting a shot at 

 wildfowl. In this way I picked up a fair knowledge of 



