222 CATARACTS. 



pice, where it probably does not exceed fifty or sixty feet ; 

 but it contains a very large body of water. 



The falls can only be seen from above, for the cliffs on 

 both sides of the river afford no path to admit of a descent. 

 Some gentlemen have attempted to reach the bottom by 

 having themselves lowered by ropes ; but no one has hith- 

 erto succeeded. A view of the falls from below, says Dr. 

 Christie, would, I am convinced, exceed in grandeur every 

 thing of the kind in the world. The spectator can very 

 easily, and with great safety, look down into the chasm to 

 its very bottom. Some large inclined plates of gneiss pro- 

 ject from its edge ; so that by laying himself flat upon one 

 of these he can stretch his head considerably beyond the 

 brink of the precipice. 



Although no accurate measurement has yet been made of 

 the height of these falls, it would appear from Dr. Christie's 

 account that they cannot be much short of one thousand 

 feet. 



Falls of the Cavery. — The falls in the course of the river 

 Cavery, still farther south in the peninsula than Garsipa, 

 are celebrated by travellers. Of these two are particularly 

 noticed, viz. the Ganga Chuki and Birra Chuki. 



The branch of the river which forms the Ganga Chuki 

 is subdivided into two lesser ramifications, a short distance 

 above the fall. The nearest and by much the largest of 

 these streams is broken by projecting masses of rock into 

 one cataract of prodigious volume and three or four smaller 

 torrents. The water of the large cataract plunges into the 

 ravine below, from a height of from 100 to 150 feet ; while 

 the smaller torrents, impeded in their course by the mter- 

 venino' rocks, work their way to a distance of about 200 

 feet from the base of the precipice, where the whole unite, 

 — the other detached portion of the river precipitating itself 

 at the same time in two columns from a cliff about 200 

 feet high, the rapid above flowing nearly at right angles with 

 the principal branch. The surrounding scenery is wild, 

 and the whole offers a most striking spectacle, especially 

 during the height of the rains. 



The second cataract is that of another arm of the 

 Cavery, at a spot called Birra Chuki about a mile from the 

 fall above described. The channel of the river here is 

 spread out to a magnificent expanse, and its stream divided 



