App. E. Rivers of the West-Coast of India- 



211 



they are beyond the jurisdiction of the Collector of South 

 Canara. Though rapid and rocky at their sources, they 

 are tortuous at their mouths, and subject to much tidal 

 influence. These two main features may perhaps be more 

 clearly conceived by a reference to 

 pp ' the accompanying map. They would / 



seem to be the natural result of the marginally noted 

 formation of the district. Further- 

 more, Canara and its boundary hills 

 are the first land that meets and re- 

 ceives the full force of the south-west 

 monsoon, and the annual rainfall on 

 the coast is 130 inches. On the hill 

 sides of the interior it is probable that 

 it is considerably heavier. Almost 

 the whole of this rain falls within a 

 period of four months, consequently 

 the rivers are subject to very mark- 

 ed fluctuations, mighty and lasting 

 swellings to which the freshes on Eng- 

 lish streams bear no comparison. 

 An approximate idea of the size of 

 these rivers may perhaps be best con- 

 veyed to the English mind, by stat- 

 ing that of the two rivers which debouch at Mangalore, 

 the Netravaty alone owns several tributaries, each of 

 which is as large as the Thames above tidal influence, 

 and many of the salmon rivers of England are puny in- 

 deed in comparison with those treated of in this report. 



Hindu mythology 

 says that the whole of 

 South Canara was for- 

 merly under the ocean, 

 the boundary of which 

 was the edge of the 

 Mysore plateau; and 

 that the sea was dried 

 up by a flaming arrow 

 of the god Parasu- 

 rama. More modern 

 science robs the fable 

 of its poetry, but 

 leaves it its ground- 

 work of truth, by as- 

 cribing the existence 

 of Canara to volcanic 

 action. There are also 

 extensive littoral up- 

 heavings of evidently 

 recent date. 



