GENERAL DESCRIPTION. '7 



Of course, the obvious view of tlie case is, that the Ghats and the 



great valley of Bhadrachalam behind them have 

 Its history. 



all grown with the denudation of this part of the 



river, which commenced to eat its way into the earth as the upper 

 surface (or thereabouts) of the Papakonda range rose out of the sea ; 

 but still there is the great difficulty that the field of harder rocks should 

 have been attacked rather than the sandstone area to the south-west. 



A reference to any good map of India will show that the Godavari 

 for some 30 miles before reaching the gorge, and in the neighbour- 

 hood of its passage from the sandstones to the gneiss area, follows a 

 remarkable bend nearly at right angles to the generally south-south-east 

 course it has pursued for over 100 miles between Sironcha and Bhadra- 

 chalam. At the same time, this area, or the mountain region of Papa- 

 konda, and the lowering hills between it and the alluvial flat of the coast, 

 exhibit plateau and bevelled surfaces which are the remains of an old 

 on the south side of the shed, Mr. Vanstaveren made further enquiries among the oldest in- 

 habitants of the neighbourhood, when he obtained confirmatory evidence. It appears that 

 there have been three well-ascertained great floodings of the Godavari, namely, in the years 

 1818, 1849, and 1861, the earliest of which was tremendously high, and 20,000 people are 

 said to have been carried off by it on the Nizam's side of the country. Mr. Vanstaveren 

 asked a man incidentally if he could point out how far the waters of 1861 approached 

 within the neighbourhood of the water-shed; the man pointed out a village not far from 

 the northern edge of the divide. On this, Mr. Vanstaveren is inclined to think that it is 

 quite possible that the greater flood of 1818 must have really overflowed and carried the 

 Godavari water into the valley of the Yerakalwa. Mr. Vanstaveren, who has perhaps had 

 more practical experience of the Godavari river than most men, says that the water rises in 

 the gorge at least 100 feet in heavy flood time. Colonel Beatty, the District Engineer in 

 1878, in answer to some enquiries I made regarding the river, says, "the depth of the river 

 in the gorge has never, so far as I know, been carefully recorded. In summer, when there 

 is no perceptible current, the depth is supposed to be about 80 feet, and in maximum floods 

 it is supposed the water rises 100 feet over summer level, so that there would then be about 

 180 feet at the gorge." Hence on my supposition of the height of the Ashwaraopet divide, 

 the water would have to rise in the gorge at least 70 feet higher before it could possibly flow 

 into the Yerakalwa valley. However, this is little more than guess-work, and therefore 

 the tradition must be let stand for what it is worth until the height of the water-shed is 

 obtained. The people are doubtless given to exaggeration in many things ; for instance, 

 they might have a tradition of a great flood that overwhelmed a countless number of 

 people, but they would hardly take the trouble to invent a story of such a phenomenon 

 as that those waters flowed over a particular water-shed. 



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