Scientific Intelligence. — Hydrogiaphy. 385 



out food. It follows, therefore, either that life does not depend 

 on the existence of the organic elements in fixed and definite pro- 

 portions, or that animated matter must have a power of generat- 

 ing carbon. — Ibid. No. ii. p. 127. 



HYDROGRAPHY. 



7. A short Account of the FalU of Girsupah, in North Ca- 

 nara, on the Western Coast of the Madras Territories. From 

 the Notes of a Medical Officer, January 1832. — The Falls of 

 Girsupah have been but seldom visited by Europeans in this 

 country, and are almost entirely unknown in our own. They 

 are peculiarly worthy the notice of the traveller, from the un- 

 paralleled depth of the chasm into which they fall, a depth of 

 no less than 892 feet ; thus ranking, as far as history or travels 

 have informed us, as the highest falls in the known world, and, 

 if so, as one amongst the great curiosities. They are not so re- 

 markable for the great body of water that rushes over the pre- 

 cipice, as for being " unique"" in point of height. The river is 

 broad and rocky, flowing in separate streams, as it were, and 

 continuing distinct till a short distance from the first or princi- 

 pal fall, where a stream branches off to form the second, third, 

 and fourth falls. Advancing to the brink of the precipice, a 

 projecting rock affords support to the astonished traveller, and 

 enables him to look down into the awful abyss beneath him with 

 some degree of confidence. From this point a view is obtained 

 of three of the falls, two of these distinct, the other and nearest 

 to the great fall rushing in a slanting direction over a rocky 

 bed, till it joins the principal fall about 100 yards down the 

 chasm. But the traveller seldom rests satisfied with this view, 

 but creeps to a flat rock overhanging the principal fall, whence 

 he sees the whole body of this precipitate itself into the chasm 

 beneath. It presents the appearance of a huge crest of foam 

 for about two-thirds down, when it appears like a sparkling 

 sheet of spray, which in a measure obscures the bottom of the 

 basin into which it falls. Indeed the Ixjttom cannot be very 

 distinctly seen from any point directly above, owing to the great 

 volume of vapour arising from the broken water beneath. The 

 light is strongly refracted by these particles of water or spray^ 

 presenting a variety of rainbow-like tints. The other two falls 



VOL. XIV. NO. XXVIII. APRIL 1833. B b 



