Shirdwati River in Canara. 189 



phitheatre nearest us, there is a streamlet exactly of a yard in 

 depth and width. It rushes to the termination of the rocks with 

 great velocity, and meeting with not the slightest obstacle in its 

 descent from it, it seems to shootoiFlike a rocket, and is apparently 

 completely dissipated in vapour long before it has passed through 

 its appointed space. The centre fall has a much larger body of 

 water. In the first instance, it rushes for about three hundred 

 feet over an inclined plane of about forty-five degrees, in a beau- 

 tiful snow-white foam, and it afterwards descends perpendicu- 

 larly into the basin below, with a thundering noise. The fall 

 on the southern side, with about the same quantity of water as 

 the preceding, is, about a hundred feet from its commencement, 

 split into two by a projecting rock, but it meets with no other 

 obstruction. It can be viewed in its whole descent with great 

 advantage. 



The report of a mass of stone which we threw over, was ex- 

 actly nine seconds in reaching us ; but it struck a ledge of rock 

 before arriving at the bottom. We had no means of making 

 for ourselves an accurate estimate of the depth of the fall. It 

 has been lately ascertained by an officer of the Madras Engi- 

 neers to be 1150 feet, nearly eight times that of Niagara ! It 

 does not appear to the eye to be of that extent. The bed of 

 the river is more than a quarter of a mile in the direct line 

 across ; and about half a mile, when measured along the margin 

 of the ellipse. In the monsoon the water rushes in every part 

 over this, as we saw from marks on the banks, with a depth of 

 at least thirty feet. The fall is consequently at this season un- 

 equalled in the world. 



Our desire to descend to the bottom was intense ; and though 

 our guides dissuaded us from making the attempt, on account 

 of its great difficulty, they admitted its practicability, of which we 

 had been assured by several friends. After we had taken break- 

 fast, and reclined for a httle, our wishes changed themselves into 

 a determination. We crossed the bed of the river, stepping over 

 the rushing floods from rock to rock, not far from the edge of the 

 cliff'. On reaching the south bank, we passed through a few small 

 rice fields and topes of jungle, and then commenced our steep de- 

 scent not many yards distant from the fall, with a sight of which 

 we were occasionally indulged as we proceeded. We had a 



