PORT CANNING is situated on the Mutlah River about 30 miles from Calcutta and about 60 from the open sea. The Mutlah is really a tidal creek rather than a river, in spite of the fact that it runs for a considerable number of miles, and its waters are distinctly brackish. Water taken from the edge at Port Canning in March was found to contain 25.46 per thousand of saline residue. The interesting feature of Port Canning, however, is from a zoological point of view not the Mutlah but certain ponds of brackish water now completely separated from it, except occasionally when the river is in flood, but communicating regularly with it in the memory of living persons. These ponds, which were apparently not in existence in 1855, have on an average an area of about half an acre each, and were evidently formed by the excavation of earth for the construction of an embankment along the Mutlah. They are very shallow and lie exposed to the sun. The salinity differs considerably in different ponds, although the fauna seems to be identical; the water of one pond was found to contain 22.88 per thousand of saline residue in May, 20.22 per thousand in March, and 12.13 in December. A second pond in the neighbourhood of the first and apparently similar to it in every way contained only 9.82 per thousand in July, after the rains had broken. The fauna of these ponds includes not only a freshwater sponge (_Spongilla alba_ var. _bengalensis_) but also many aquatic insects (_e. g._, larvæ of mosquitos and of _Chironomus_ and several species of beetles and Rhynchota); while on the other hand essentially marine coelenterates (_Irene ceylonensis_, etc.) and worms (_e. g._, the gephyrean _Physcosoma lurco_[G]) form a part of it, together with forms of intermediate habitat such as _Bowerbankia caudata_ subsp. _bengalensis_, _Victorella bengalensis_, and several fish and crustacea common in brackish water. [Footnote G: I am indebted to Mr. W. F. Lanchester for the identification of this species.] _Orissa._ Orissa may be described in general terms as consisting of the coastal area of Bengal south of the Gangetic delta. It extends in inland, however, for a considerable distance and includes hilly tracts. There is no geographical boundary between it and the north-eastern part of the Madras Presidency or the eastern part of the Central Provinces.