Description of the Falls of Gersuppah. 241 



Orn. vol.1, p. 19. — Merey Tasschenb. Deut. vol. 1, p. 37. — 

 Falco Olumipes, Daud. Orn. — Falco Selavonicns, Lath. Ind. 

 vol. 1, p. 26. sp. 54. — Buse GantsSe, Le Vaill. Ois. d'Afrique, 

 vol. I, pi. 1 8. 



(To be continued.) 



Contributions to Physical Geography. 



(From the Edinburgh Journal of Science, No. III.) 



1. Description of the Falls of Gersuppah in North Canara. 

 The following description of the falls of Gersuppah, in North 

 Canara, appears in a letter, published in a Madras paper; 

 they are represented to be the grandest in the world. 



"The falls are situated at the distance of a mile to the west 

 of a small village called Kodakainy, which forms the boundary 

 of the Bilghy Talook, in North Canara, and lies contiguous 

 to the Sagara district of Mysore, receiving a continual supply 

 of water from twelve streams, which conjoin, as the name im- 

 plies, at Baringee. in Mysore ; five of these pursue their course 

 from Ramachendapoorah ; four from Futty Pettah, or the town 

 of Victory, so named by Hyder ; and the remaining three at 

 Koodolee; and after being precipitated down the cataract, and 

 then gently winding the current through a rugged way, which 

 it has forced through the base of the mountains at the verge 

 of their declivity, widens at Gersuppah, and forms a beautiful 

 river, called Sarawati, navigable for sixteen miles for boats to 

 the town of Honore, where it falls into the sea. 



" Like most other places to which the natives have given 

 names from something remarkable in their soil or site, this 

 was called Gersuppah, because the ground, before the build- 

 ings had been erected, was covered with cashew-nut trees ; 

 Ger, signifying in Canarese. the tree of this description, and 

 Sooppoo, a leaf. 



" It was asserted by the bramin who accompanied me, in 

 their usual exaggerated style, that the old city here contained, 

 in its flourishing state, a lakh of houses, and I have no doubt, 

 from the extent of the ruins, that its population may have 

 been above half that number. Out of seventy-four temples 

 called Busty, there remains but one, well constructed of gra- 

 nite, covered with a stone roof, where the Chatour Mookee, or 

 four-fronted idol of the Jain caste (the then inhabitants) sits, 

 surviving the homage of its long silent worshippers, a prey to 

 the moles and to the bats. 



" On leaving Gersuppah, we commenced the arduous under- 

 taking of ascending the Ghauts. The pass here is neither 30 



Hh 



