GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 9 



in communication with a further great system on the Kistna delta, the 



junction being at Ellore, which again within the last year or two has 



been connected with the coastal canal from Madras. The Godavari 



system has been effected by a great dam or 'anient ' which is built across 



the river at Dowlaishweram, at either end of which and in the middle 



are locks leading the waters into what are called the eastern, western, 



and central deltas, the latter being between the two branches of the 



river. At flood-time the anicut is completely covered, the only evidence 



of its existence being a broad wave across the river's course. The 



height of a maximum flood at Dowlaishweram is about 53 feet above 



mean sea level, and at the gorge it is supposed to be about 150 feet ; so 



that there is a fall of about 97 feet from here to the anicut, that is, 



in a distance of. about 45 miles. The current of the river at that 



time through the hills is so great that the most powerful steamers of 



the Godavari works fleet cannot make any head against it. 1 



The great alluvial plain of the coast is broken by a large surface 



of inland brackish water called the Koler lake. 



The KoMr lake. . . ' _ ' 



into which the Tammiler river empties itself. 



This lake is very shallow, and is situated about midway between the 



Godavari and the Kistna ; and it seems to be obviously a hollow which 



has been left between the gradually growing deltas of the two rivers 



which has not as yet been filled up by the deposits of the smaller river, 



though this has undoubtedly spread out a delta of its own in the bay 



between the long low uplands behind Ellore and thus helped to give the 



even north-west shore line. The lake is in tidal communication 3 with 



the sea in the dry weather by the Upputeru, a stream at its eastern end 



1 Mr. Vanstaveren, who has occasionally made the voyage on the river at these flood 

 times, tells me that in the gorge the surface of the river has then a very hollow section 

 and that the voyager races away as it were in a trench of water ; and that just below the 

 pass there is all the sensation of going down a slope, or working up one as the case may 

 he. The great flat-bottomed stern-paddle steamers are often tried up this visible slope 

 before the current diminishes sufficiently to allow them to proceed. 



2 Colonel Beatty writes : " When I visited the head of the outlet in May 1876 it was 

 open, and the water, in the mouth (which was some 100 or 150 feet broad) rose and fell 

 about 3 feet with every tide. 



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