240 



Statistics of the 



[No. 38, 



from bank to bank; the debris of rocks and gravel brought down 

 by the monsoon torrents, strew the centre of the channel; whilst 

 heaped along its margins, are deep beds of finer depositions, left 

 there by the silt charged waters ; the courser debris are fragments 

 of basalt, clay stones, agates, chalcedonies, heliotrope, and zeolites, 

 both fibrous and lamilar: the breaking down of the latter into mi- 

 nute particles, imparting a micacious glitter to the finer sand. The 

 banks are generally abrupt on both sides, though highest along the 

 northern, where they are seen from 20 to 100 feet in height; their 

 formation is principally stratified deposits washed down from the 

 bills and plains above, through whose loosely consolidated materials, 

 deep vertical chasms constantly are occurring, formed by the erosion, 

 and obrusion of streams, struggling to unite their waters with the ri- 

 ver, and occasion perplexing difficulties to travellers directing their 

 route too closely along its margin. Sections of the banks thus laid 

 bare to view, frequently expose curiously shaped stalagmitic calca- 

 reous concretions, whilst at other places, huge masses of indurated 

 breccia have been insulated by the stream and fallen, being masses 

 of sand and gravel, hardened into a natural concrete, by the conti- 

 nued percolation of waters, laden with calcareous matter. The spon- 

 taneous vegetation that appears along the banks is confined general- 

 ly to plants of a prickly nature, as the prosopis, xymenia, and seve- 

 ral kinds of baubul, as the ramkanta, differing from others in its 

 straight and close habits of growth: the acacia tomentosurn ; the 

 acacia farnesiana, emitting a very fragrant odour, and the acacia la- 

 tronnm, also deliciously odoriferous, but more remarkable for its enor- 

 mous white thorns; with these are sometimes seen the dalbergia arbo- 

 ria, and cassia auriculato ; lower in the banks, and close to running 

 water bushes of vitex, oleander, and tamarisk are found. 



The Sewnee river enters the Sircar in latitude 19 Q 

 Sewnee. 39// 30 ' rjor th, and longitude 75° 12" east, keeping 

 a south-easterly course for about ten miles, along the western boun- 

 dary line, falling into the Godavery about half a mile west of Sa- 

 ondkhair: deep sand banks have been thrown up at the point of 

 junction, by the enormous quantity of detrital matter brought down 

 annually by the rains, rendering a passage across them difficult, if 

 not dangerous. 



The Gunda enters the Sircar eight miles Jo the 

 Gunda. ■ _ , , . 



northward of Samaoorwarrah which rests upon its 



