310 



A short Account of the 



[Oct. 



April and part of May ; towards the end of the latter month, a litttle 

 water frequently comes down, but not sufficient to supply the irri- 

 gated lands and to fill the sands all the way to the sea ; about the mid- 

 dle of June the regular fresh, caused by the south-west monsoon, gene- 

 rally reaches Trichinopoly, and by the end of the month the supply of 

 water is usually sufficiently abundant to reach the sea, though this 

 does not always happen before the middle of July. The highest rise 

 of the river, caused by the south-west monsoon, ordinarily takes place 

 in July, and there is a good deal of water in August ; in September or 

 October it mils very low; this is called in Tanjore the peritassee 

 kacheal or September drought ; towards the end of October it begins 

 to rise again from the rains of the north-east monsoon, is at its highest 

 about the middle of November, and falls continually from that time, 

 till about March, when there is frequently no running water at all in 

 the river. 



To proceed with the account of the river and its branches. — At the 

 head of Seringham, it divides into two great streams ; the northern, 

 w hich is the main channel, and flows on the lowest level, is called the 

 Colleroon, and the southern retains the name of Cauvery. The Colle- 

 roon is about from 900 to 1300 yards broad ; it skirts the high ground on 

 the north side of the Delta, all the way to within thirty-five miles of the 

 sea, where the land on its northern side begins to be alluvial, and so may 

 be considered as part of the Delta, though the Colleroon throws off 

 no natural branches, either on that side or to the southward, through- 

 out its course, excepting the small one which separates near the 

 sea and forms the island of Pitcheveraim. At the head of the 

 Colleroon, a high and strong embankment, ri vetted with stone, is 

 brought from the high ground on the north side, distant about three 

 quarters of a mile, to the edge of the river, and an embankment is conti- 

 nued from thence along the north side, about twenty miles, to beyond the 

 east end of Seringham, to protect the highly cultivated talook of 

 Laulgoody, which is several feet below the surface of the river in high 

 freshes. This talook is watered by two large and several small chan- 

 nels led off from the Colleroon ; the largest is from fifteen to thirty 

 yards broad, and upwards of twenty miles in length. At the eastern 

 end of Seringham, the Colleroon receives the surplus waters of the 

 Cauvery from the grand annicut, which will be afterwards mentioned. 

 From thence to the sea it has an artificial embankment (in some places 

 four yards high), along its south side, to protect the Tanjore lands, 

 which are all low and highly cultivated. On this side the lands are 

 mostly watered by the Cauvery, the Colleroon supplying only one 

 channel of any consequence ; this is the Munnyaur, which branches 

 off north-east of Triviar, is twenty to thirty yards broad, and about forty 

 miles long, watering about ten thousand vaylies, or eighty thousand caw- 



