Physical Geography of Hindostan. 



331 



dous river systems — the Himalayan and Hindostanee — 

 drawing their supplies from totally separate sources, and 

 traversing or surrounding the whole of the districts subject 

 to the visitation of famine. The Indus, with its five magni- 

 ficent tributaries which intersect the Punjaub, and the Ganges 

 and Burrampootra, with their gigantic branches, derive their 

 principal supplies from the melting of the snows ; and the 

 more fiercely the sun shines on the hills, and the more insuf- 

 ferable that are the heats below, the more plentifully do these 

 gelid storehouses give up their treasures. The whole of the 

 Hindostanee system of rivers, again, consisting of the Saber- 

 mutti, the Mhye, the Nerbudda, the Taptee, all discharging 

 themselves into the Gulf of Cambay, in Western India ; the 

 Godavery, the Kistna, and the Cauvery, falling into the Bay 

 of Bengal, originate in the western mountains, and are fed 

 by the rains which fall over these, to the extent of 100 

 inches on an average, during the months of June, July, and 

 August. Both systems, whether fed by snow or rain, are in 

 flood at the same period of the year, that being just the sea- 

 son when moisture is most required. Both draw their sup- 

 plies from mountains too rocky or barren to require mois- 

 ture, and too steep to retain it, and which send to the ocean, 

 through tracts of the finest country in the world, supplies of 

 water sufficient to transform them into one universal garden. 

 The following table is given by Hamilton of the probable 

 length of some of the rivers of India : — 



Miles to the sea. 



1700 



1500 



1400 



1250 



980 



850 



700 



700 



550 



460 



460 



. — Gairsuppa, Western Ghauts, top of fall to 

 surface of basin, 888 feet, depth of basin, 300 — total, 1188 ; from 300 to 

 600 feet across during the rains. Yeanna, Mahabaleshwar, 600 feet. 

 Cavery, Mysore, 300 feet. Bouti, in Bundelcund, 400 feet. Katra, in 

 Bundelcund, 398 feet. Chai, in Bundelcund, 362 feet. Keuti, in Bun- 

 delcund, 272 feet. Garsippa, near Honoor, 1000 feet, and 60 feet across. 



1. Indus, ...... 



2. Jumna (to its junction with the Ganges, 780 miles), 



3. Sutlej (to the Indus, 900), 



4. Jhylum (ditto, 750), 



5. Gunduck (to the Ganges, 450), 



6. Godavery, . 



7. Krishna, 



8. Nerbudda, 



9. Mahanuddy, 



10. Tuptee, 



11. Cavery, 



Remarkable Cataracts 



