1844.] Note on the Navigation of the river Nurbudda, 499 



" From Mundleysir to the Hern Phall, a distance of eighty (80) miles, 

 there is an uninterrupted navigation for small boats from the com- 

 mencement of the Monsoon till the end of April, and it is then only 

 interrupted in one place,* three miles below Muheysir, where part of 

 the river falls down a small precipice, and a back stream is there 

 made use of for the boats. But during the last six weeks of the hot 

 weather, from the shallowness of the water, and the boatmen neglect- 

 ing to deepen the back stream as the water decreases, it of course 

 becomes dry ; but should it ever be required to be made use of during 

 those six weeks, I have no doubt, from the appearance of the river, that 

 a little labor would make it navigable all the year round 



" From the nature of the rocky bed of the Nerbudda at the Hirun 

 Phall, I conceive it impossible that the obstacles to navigate it could 

 ever be surmounted. From the circumstance of small ridges of rocks 

 running parallel to each other in the river, and only distant from 

 twelve to twenty feet, it causes such a rush of water through them, 

 that the boatmen are afraid to pass it, being unable to guide the boat 

 clear of the rocks; and one which I prevailed upon the men with some 

 difficulty to make the attempt with, was upset, and the men much bruis- 

 ed against the rocks. But a still greater obstacle exists about a mile 

 below that, where nearly the whole water of the river rushes into a 

 channel not more than forty yards broad, attended with a consider- 

 able fall, and with such violence, that any boat trying to pass it, must 

 inevitably be lost. 



" Finding myself unable either to proceed along the bed of the river 

 or in a boat, I determined upon getting down to Hamp Island, in the 

 expectation that I should there be able to get boats and return by the 

 river to the Hirun Phall, or if not, proceed from thence to Baroche; 

 for which purpose I came back about three miles, and landed on the 

 North bank of the river at the small village of Dhair, and proceeded 

 nearly due North to Kooksee along a good cart road, distance ten 

 miles and seven furlongs. From hence I marched in a North-west 

 direction to Rajpoor, distance twenty-nine miles and one furlong; also 

 a good cart road, but the last twenty miles is through a thick jungle. I 

 then moved in a Southerly direction to Allie Mohun, through an 



* Lubesvidara. 



