Sivasamudram in the Caveri River. 315 
The rates of hire and the prices of materials must, therefore, have been 
moderate : and yet it is well known that the Wellesley Bridge cost 
between seventy and eighty thousand Canteroy pagodas, or upwards of 
2,10,000 rupees. The Wellesley Bridge is on the same principles of con- 
struction as the Ramshatuva ; the former has a broader roadway, but it is not 
more than two-thirds of the length of the one constructed by me at this 
island. The highest of its pillars are from twelve to fifteen feet, while in 
the Ramshatuva, there are many from eighteen to twenty-one. 
When the difficulties which attended the erection of the bridge at 
Sivasamudram are considered, with the facilities with which the Wellesley 
Bridge was built, I may without fear assert, that the valuation estimate of 
the former should have greatly exceeded the sum stated by the officer of 
engineers. 
In concluding this memoir, I may be permitted to dwell with some degree 
of vanity and self-satisfaction on the works which I have already accom- 
plished from my own resources, and without the aid of one rupee from the 
public. I have to reflect that I have been the means of restoring to my 
countrymen access to a place and its religious buildings, held sacred from 
time immemorial. ‘That I have, by perseverance, rendered lands habitable 
which were formerly the resorts of ferocious animals only. That when the 
bridge on the western branch of the Cdveré shall have been completed, I 
shall have been the instrument of opening communications which had long 
ceased to exist, to the trader and the traveller; that the lives of man and 
beast will no longer be endangered in the passage of the rapid and deep 
Caveri; and although I might enumerate many other public advantages 
which have been, and will be derived from my exertions, I shall only further 
allude to thefacility which now attends the visits of the curious to the 
celebrated falls of the Cdavert on each of the branches, by which the sacred 
island of Stvasamudram is formed. 
Finally, I may claim the merit of disinterestedness. I have shewn at how 
great pecuniary sacrifices and personal vexations and trouble the works have 
been performed ; and I have no prospect of future recompense, nor do I 
ask any. The island of Sivasamudram, and the tract of jungle granted to 
me on the original agreement, were rated in the books of the Collector at 
4,840 rupees per annum; whereas, when I took charge of these grants, 
they did not yield to government a revenue of a hundred rupees a year ; 
