INTRODUCTORY. 11 



Meadows Taylor, whose long residence both at Sorapur and Ling Sugur 

 gave him ample opportunities for visiting that very picturesque region 

 frequently and at the proper seasons. This group of hills is continuous 

 geologically with that of the right bank of the Krishna mentioned be- 

 fore at page 9. 



The Sorapur* Hills, and sundry scattered granitic hills in the 



Sorapur Taluk, amongst which are the Shahpur 

 Sorapur and Shahpur. 



(Shawpoor) Hills, indicate a former connection with 



the granitic hills east of the Bhima, which form a chain of heights 



extending eastward beyond the limits of the area to be described in 



these pages. 



"Again, the Beydur Chief spoke : ' The pool is clear Meeah ' he said, ' see, it is like all 

 the horses in the world tossing their manes and fighting.' It was indeed a frightful place 

 to look upon. At his feet, as it seemed, in a wide pool at the foot of the fall, the tremen- 

 dous masses of water falling into it met other currents and eddies of equal power, and 

 dashing together raised enormous waves which met in innumerable shocks and cast their 

 spray high into the air, whirling, foaming, breaking with inconceivable violence and gran- 

 deur, almost impossible to look on with a steady eye for a moment together. Tet the 

 Beydur, to whom the scene was familiar, beheld it with a serene gravity. " This is the 

 nymph in her fury," he said, ' and we worship her and cast flowers and our simple offerings 

 into her bosom to appease her. When it is past we can wander over the rocks and make 

 offerings at the holy pools which now vomit forth the columns of water you see rising, and 

 the pool now so fearful to look upon is as still as a lake.' 



" The banks of the chasm were huge piles of granite rock covered with trees and brush- 

 wood which seemed to bend in homage to the genius of the place ; and they were all now 

 lighted up with roseate tints, while the deep shadows of the ravine increased the beauty 

 and solemnity of the scene. 



" In dry weather the stream was reduced to a com paratively small compass, the cataract 

 was divided into many portions threading through the rocks in their white streams and 

 disclosing the whole of the wonderful formation of the fall, huge masses of granite rock, 

 crossed by veins and dykes of basalt. From the crest of the cataract to the pool beneath, 

 the measure by level of the descent is 408 feet in about a quarter of a mile, and, as I 

 have before attempted to describe the fury of the decending mass of water, when the river 

 is in flood, is majestic and wonderful in the extreme, but the place is so lonely, so entirely 

 out of the way of ordinary travellers, that, except the people of the country immediately 

 round, few know of its existence." 



* For a full description of these hills, see Captain Meadows Taylor's Sketch of the 

 Geology of the District of Shorapoor or Soorpoor in the Dekhan. — Journal of the Geol. 

 Socy. of Dublin, Vol. X, pt. 1, 1862-63. 



( 11 ) 



