GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 5 



of Rajahmundry and Samalkot (Samulcottah) ; and again, but in an ex- 

 tremely smaller way, there are a few elevations in the north-east plain, as 

 near Pithapuram and Ayaparaz-Kotapili, or still nearer to the rising- land, 

 the very picturesque group of tolerably high gneiss bosses in the alluvial 

 bay of Lingumpurra. At the Bezvada end there are also a few similar 

 alluvium surrounded hilly masses, two of which, on either bank of the 

 Kistna, have been joined together by tha great dam there built across the 

 river and giving a head to the splendid system of canals distributed 

 over its delta. Indeed, at the remote period when this great alluvial 

 plain was occupied by the sea, the then Godavari coast must have been 

 eminently varied in its contour, from the Bezvada islands in the Kistna 

 bay past the large island on which the pleasant bungalows above 

 Dowlaishweram now stand, and so by the many curving bays of Kirlum- 

 pudi, Tuni, &c, right up to the Dolphin's Nose and numerous other fine 

 hilly masses in the neighbourhood of Vizagapatam : a very different style 

 of scenery to that now exhibited along the low and uninteresting shores 

 of the Coromandel. 



From this old coast line the country in the middle area rises very 



gradually by long-backed sandstone hills which 

 Low country and hills. 



drop down again in low parallel escarpments facing 



north-westward, and beyond these there is further low-lying but broken 

 ground, marked more particularly by the Chintalpudi hills. In the 

 Bezvada area the country is still very flat, but there are several low hills 

 and ridges rising out of it such as the groups around Augerpali and 

 the larger masses of Vellatur and Kondapilli. Over the north-eastern 

 country, low hillocks rise immediately from the edge of the alluvial 

 plain having a long and quite even slope to the south-east and a much 

 steeper fall to the north-west ; and these are succeeded by rather flat- 

 topped ridges, rapidly increasing in number and height towards the more 

 hilly Ranipa country. 



The important local rivers are the Tammiler, flowing past Ellore into 



the Koler lake ; the Yera Kalwa, draining much 

 Rivers. 



of the country below the Kaurkonda or Bison 



( 199 ) 



