166 
THE ORIENTAL ANNUAL. 
series of cascades. The sources of this river are in the 
Western Ghat mountains, whence it issues in innumer- 
able rivulets, many of which are considerably larger 
than that to which the Hindoos, without any apparent 
reason, have assigned the honour of pre-eminence. 
The waters which thus rise to the surface within 
fifty miles of the Western Ocean, flow eastward, and 
having formed a junction just above the town of 
Koombharri, roll on, eastward and south-eastward, 
through stupendous forests of the teak- tree, being 
joined by numerous other currents, and performing 
altogether a course of nearly a thousand miles, until 
it pours itself into the Eastern Ocean, dividing the 
coasts of Coromandel and Orissa. After the heavy 
rains, particularly during the monsoon, the volume 
of its waters is stupendous. Its channel is singularly 
irregular, being in some places spread over a tract of 
country two or three miles in breadth, the stream 
being scarcely knee-deep ; while in other parts it is 
pent up in a narrow bed, the overhanging banks 
whereof are scarcely a furlong apart, and the waters 
from eighty to a hundred feet in depth. The most 
remarkable instance of this kind is at the famous 
pass through the Papkoondur mountains, which 
form the north-west frontier of Rajamundri, where 
the broad current is suddenly compressed into a 
narrow channel, about two hundred yards in width, 
by a natural barrier, some parts of which have an 
altitude exceeding two thousand feet. 
