504 Note on the Navigation of the river Nurbudda. [No. 151. 



" I here left the large boat, as originally intended, having brought 

 with ine a canoe hollowed out of a single tree, and remarkably strong, 

 in which I proposed to make the rest of the voyage. This we 

 managed to get down with but trifling injury, not however until it 

 had been repeatedly upset, and once or twice sunk, although I had a 

 couple of strong ropes attached to it, and the assistance of five or six 

 persons to guide it. 



" If found expedient a road, apparently about a mile and a quarter 

 in length, might be made on the northern side of the river, by 

 which both this and the rapid above might be cut off; but owing to 

 the unevenness of the banks its construction would be expensive, and 

 it may reasonably be doubted, if the saving obtained by adopting this 

 plan in preference to others would counterbalance the disadvantages 

 of a mixed communication. This question can be determined only 

 by the most careful levelling, and a thorough and minute examination 

 of the spot during the different phases of the river. 



" Between this and Kukranuh, which is about sixteen miles below 

 Hirun Phall, I met with only three interruptions, so exactly alike, 

 that one description will answer for all. At these places there is an 

 abrupt descent of the river, and the channel becomes suddenly con- 

 tracted, the stream rushing through with such violence, that we were 

 obliged to use every precaution in letting down the canoe. However, 

 it luckily happens that in all of these the fall is inconsiderable, and 

 the channel narrows only in that particular spot, so that unlike the 

 Hirun Phall, there being no length of rapid to overcome, the difficulty 

 of making them navigable would be comparatively small. 



" With these exceptions, I found the voyage both easy and pleasant, 

 and it struck me, that from Hirun Phall to Kukranuh, there were 

 fewer shallows and a greater portion of really navigable water, than in 

 any portion of the river of the same length that I had met with 

 above. 



"At Dhurmeaj, as before stated, the bed of the river is slightly 

 contracted, but below it resumes nearly its ordinary width, the main 

 body of the stream being in most places confined to a narrow channel 

 somewhat resembling a canal. A little below Hirun Phall, the rocks 

 rise on both sides in perpendicular walls, and the water is uncom- 

 monly deep, flowing for a long way with a gentle current, and with- 



