FALSE POINT, a land-locked harbour in the Cuttack district of Orissa, situated in 20° 20' N. lat. and 86° 47' E. long., and reported by the famine commissioners in 1867 to be the best harbour on the coast of India from the Hιigli to Bombay. It derives its name from the circumstance that vessels proceeding up the Bay of Bengal frequently mistook it for Point Palmyras, a degree further north. The anchorage is safe, roomy, and completely landlocked. The capabilities of False Point as a harbour remained long unknown, and it was only in 1860 that the port was opened. It was rapidly developed, owing to the construction of the Orissa canals. Two navigable channels lead inland across the Mahânadi delta, and connect the port with Cuttack city. The trade of False Point is chiefly with other Indian harbours, but a large export trade in rice and oil-seeds has sprung up with Mauritius, the French colonies, and France. False Point is now a regular port of call for Anglo-Indian coasting steamers. Its capabilities were first appreciated during the Orissa famine of 1866, when it afforded almost the only means by which supplies of rice could be thrown into the province. Between 1863-64 and 1874-75 the value of the export and import trade of False Point has increased from .£51,921 to £261,212, or upwards of five times, and the number of vessels visiting the port from 16 to 110. A lighthouse is situated a little to the south of the anchorage, on the point which screens it from the southern monsoon, in 20° 19' 52'' lat. and 86° 46' 57" E. long.