8 KING : COASTAL REGION OP THE GODAVARI DISTRICT. 



marine plain now having a gentle slope of two or three degrees to the 

 south-east, the elevation of which plain above the sea would appear to 

 have commenced at the end of the Jurassic period. 



I would venture to suggest that this trending of the river so much 

 more to the eastward may be attributed to an elevation of the land with 

 an initial slope such as is presented by the present surface configuration 

 of the hilly country ; while concurrently with this elevation, the denud- 

 ing power of the river would be gradually directed to and kept working 

 in the harder crystalline rocks. 



This abrupt swerve in the river's course was more particularly 

 brought to my notice by the late Dr. Oldham in connection with corres- 

 ponding deviations from their general or average courses in the Kistna 

 near Kurnool, the Penne"r near Cuddapah, and the Cauvery at Keriir, 

 which he seemed inclined to think indicated a period of physical change 

 of considerable importance in the geological history of the peninsula. 

 Further study of these rivers and of the rocks traversed by them may 

 help to develop this generalisation ; but so far the course of the Goda- 

 vari below Bhadrachalam does appear to be one of the marks of a 

 middle mesozoic period of great change in the eastern coast of India. 



The alluvial banks on either side of the gorge between the hill 

 Delta branches of Go- spurs, are left as a well-marked terrace fully 70 or 

 d ^ Yari - 80 feet over the level of the dry-weather waters. 



Below it, or near Polawaram, the alluvium begins to spread out widely 

 on either side, the flood waters being now kept back by artificial banks 

 all the way down to the commencement of the delta at Dowlaishweram, 

 a few miles below which town the river bifurcates, the Gowtami branch 

 going off towards the northern mouth at Hope Island, while the Vasista 

 branch flows in the direction of Bendamiirlanka and again bifurcates, 

 giyiug one outlet near the latter place and the other and larger near 

 Narsapur. 



The delta waters have now for many years been distributed by a 



magnificent system of navigable and irrigation 

 System of irrigation. .- . 



canals over the great alluvial plain, and are even 



( 202 ) 



