( 185 ) 



Account of a Visit to the Falls on the Shirdwatt River in Ca- 

 nara. By the Rev. Dr Wilson of the General Assem- 

 bly's Mission, and Dr Smyttan of the Medical Board, 

 Bombay. Communicated by Dr Wilson to the Rev. Dr 

 Brunton, Professor of Oriental Languages in the Univer- 

 sity of Edinburgh, F.R.S.E., &c. 



On the afternoon of the 15th February 1837, we sailed from 

 Honawar* in a light native boat, our baggage following us in an- 

 other, to Garsapa, which is about sixteen miles due east. The 

 scenery on the banks is most beautiful, and in some places grand. 

 Hills, generally of a considerable size, with their superior rock 

 of laterite, which prevails, more or less, in the low part of the 

 country, approach the edge of the water ; and they are covered 

 with vegetation, luxuriant and varied, except where the common 

 barabu (Bambusa arundinacea) predominates. It was late when 

 we reached our destination : and it was later still when our 

 horses, which had been led by a circuitous route through the 

 jungle, arrived. Their keepers and the guides maintained that 

 they had been greatly alarmed by the appearance of wild beasts 

 on the way. The sepoys in charge of the travellers' bungalow 

 informed us that they are numerous in the more open parts of 

 the forest, which is not unlikely. Mr Mattley, of the Civil 

 Service, afterwards shewed us the last annual government re- 

 turns connected with the ferine warfare carried on in the Nagar 

 districts above the ghats. Ninety-two men and 901 cattle had 

 been reported as carried off and destroyed, while rewards had 

 been given for the skins of 100 tigers, 136 chitas, four wolves, 

 and twenty-six bears, which had been killed by the natives. Tn 

 some parts of the forest wild oxen and sdmbdrs abound. We 

 started one of the latter. It seemed to me, from its great size 

 and dark colour, to be the Cervus Aristotelis of Bengal, and not 

 the Cervus equinus, which, as mentioned by Colonel Sykes, 

 abounds in the Dakhan. Its antlers, a pair of which we had 

 examined at Honawar, are very large and heavy. 



" Corrupted by the English and Portuguese into Onnore. 



