:^9.4 Mr Christie on the Meteorology, Geology, ^c. 



the forest opens a little, so as to admit of the growth of humbler 

 plants, the ground is covered with the most luxuriant grasses, 

 and flowers of the richest hues. The stillness of this wilderness 

 is only interrupted by the sleepy sound of a mountain streai)^, 

 Of occasionally by the harsh cry of some solitary birds, or the 

 loud hollow yoice of a monkey. Animals are seldom met with ; 

 and often on your journey, nothing is to be seen for hours but 

 an endless luxuriant vegetation. 



Some very beautiful waterfalls are met with in the western 

 Gauts, but many of these are completely dried up in the hot 

 season. There are very fine falls in the Gauts above Honoor, 

 which, for sublimity and magnitude, will probably yield to few 

 in the world. They have hitherto been little known even to 

 Europeans in Indi^ ; and it is, I believe, only within the last 

 teijL or twelve years that they have receiv^ a ni^me. They are 

 situated on the river Shervutty, about fifteen miles up the Gauts, 

 from the town of Garsipa. They are now known to Europeans by 

 the name of the Falls of Garsipa. I visited them in the month 

 of October 1825. 



The country in the neighbourhood of the Falls is extremely 

 beautiful, combining the majestic appearance of a tropical forest 

 with the softer characters of an English park. Hill and dale 

 are icovered with a soft green, which is finely contrasted with a 

 border of dark forest, with numerous clumps of majestic trees, 

 and thickets of accacias, the carunda, and other flowering 

 shrubs. 



Upon approaching the Falls, you emerge from a thick wood, 

 and come suddenly upon the river, gliding gently among con- 

 fused masses of rock. A few steps more, over huge blocks of 

 granite, bring you to the brink of a fearful chasm, rocky, bare, 

 and black ; down into which you look to the depth of a thou- 

 sand feet ! Over its sides rush the different branches of the 

 river, the largest stretching in one huge curling pillar of white 

 foam, without interruption to the bottom. The waters are, at 

 the bottom, by the force of their fall, projected far out in 

 straight lines ; and at some distance below the falls, form a thin 

 cloud of white vapour, which rises high above the surrounding 

 forest. The sides of the chasm are formed by slanting strata of 

 rock, the regularity of which forms a striking contrast to the 



