Gomti River

“ A hill in the range which runs from that peak across the river into the Pólavaram division is locally known as Biraiya Konda, and is regarded as the haunt of a demon called Biraiya who is worshipped by the native navigators of the Gódávari.† [5] Among the great rivers of India the Gōdávari takes rank next after the Ganges and Indus. It runs nearly across the peninsula, its course is 900 miles long, and it receives the drainage from 115,000 square miles, an area greater than that of England and Scotland combined. ”

“ It is no longer the stately stream, whose mystic beauty, noble grandeur, and gentle, uninterrupted flow along a course of nearly nine hundred miles ever fascinated us, despite the savagery of its peopled shores, but a furious river, rushing down a steep bed obstructed by reefs of lava, projected barriers of rock, lines of immense boulders, winding in crooked course through deep chasms, and dropping down over terraces in a long series of falls, cataracts, and rapids. ”

“ The next attempt was to steam up the Jumna, but meeting with a shoal at Kulna, the steamer could proceed no further. The rocks which formerly existed in this river, were blasted by the late Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Taylor, of the Engineers.
The question naturally arises, why the same remedy could not be applied as at Gottenburg, in Sweden, where rapids have been passed by making a canal outside; and why, in India, canals are never resorted to for out-flanking an impediment in a river? This, however, is an enquiry to which no satisfactory reply has ever yet been given. ”

“ The majority of the board, 8 to 5, opposed the idea of a dam and locks at Gatun on two grounds: first, that the introduction of locks in a treatment of the question was objectionable from many points of view; and, second, that the maintenance of a summit by means of an earth dam of immense magnitude to control the flood waters of this river introduced an element of great danger since the dam, without sheet piling, was proposed to be founded on the alluvial-filled gorges of the Chagres River, where the depth at one point extended 258 feet below the level of the sea. ”

“ It is a very flat country, and all in pasture; has few mountains, but these are very high ones, and are chiefly on the banks of the Nile, to the south, which river surrounds the province; so that, to a person who should walk round Gojam, the Nile would be always on his left hand, from where it went south, falling out of the lake Tzana, till it turns north through Fazuclo into the country of Sennaar and Egypt.
Gojam is full of great herds of cattle, the largest in the high parts of Abyssinia. The men are in the lowest esteem as soldiers, but the country is very populous. ”

“ It then ascends by a steep and laborious path to Haripur, a small village about 500 feet above the bed of the river. The Gambar river, where the road crosses it, flows through a narrow rocky ravine, somewhat picturesque, but quite devoid of trees. This, however, is not the general character of the river-bed, which is frequently wide, with a broad gravelly channel, and sloping though often rather steep mountains on either side. There is occasionally even a strip of flat land, capable of cultivation along the banks ”

“ King, 'the pent-up waters tear their way with, I have been told, a surface so strangely concave on the cross section that adventurous boatmen glide along the bottom of a trough whose sides rise up to a good height and hide away the immediate banks; and out of this gorge away towards the open country of the Gódávari district the river has such a fall that the sensation produced on the mind of the traveller is said to be that of sliding down an inclined plane.'* [8] Native boatmen are much afraid of navigating the river at such times ”

“ There are no mountains.
Drainage.—The drainage of the country is carried on by the Gumti and Sai rivers, which in their turn receive small tributary streams. The chief of these is the Bạita, a small perennial stream, which, rising in the Hardoi district, passes through the Malihabad pargana in a south-easterly direction, and falls into the Gumti at a point on its right bank near Kánkrábad. "The Loni, another stream having its source in the Mohanlalganj pargana, passes through it, and joins the river near Salempur on its right bank. ”

“ The Gomal falls into the Indus, between Dera Ismael Khan and Paharpore, and although Elphinstone calls it a river only during the rainy season, Klaproth (Foe-koue-ki, p. 23) describes its upper course as far more considerable, and adds: 'Un peu à l'est de Sirmágha, le Gomal traverse la chaîne de montagnes de Solimán, passe devant Raghzi, et fertilise le pays habité par les tribus de Dauletkhail et de Gandehpour. ”

“ The little river Goomtee winds exceedingly, and cuts into the soil in some places to the depth of fifty feet. In such places there are deep ravines; and the landholders along the border improve these natural difficulties by planting and preserving trees and underwood in which to hide themselves and their followers when in arms against their Government. Any man who cuts a stick in these jungles, or takes his camels or cattle into them to browse or graze without the previous sanction of the landholder, does so at the peril of his life. ”

“ The descent to the lower district is marked by the Barraconda rapids, formed by a ledge of rock stretching across the river. Between 30 and 50 m. above the falls the Gambia is joined by two considerable affluents, the Nieriko from the north and the Kuluntu or Grey river from the south. From the Barraconda rapids to the Atlantic the Gambia has a course of about 350 m. Throughout this distance the waters are tidal, and the river is navigable all the year round by boats drawing 6 ft. ”

“ Any weakness in the Gatun Dam would ruin the whole project. You can see, of course, why this is so, because the water in that Gatun Lake will be relied upon to fill the locks which will raise vessels up or down.”
[179]
“But suppose the Chagres River cuts up ugly, as you said it does sometimes?” asked Merritt.
“Well,” said Rob, “I heard Mr. Mainwaring say that the great lake will be so big that a flood would affect its level no more than a cup of water poured into a bath tub. The river will merely serve to keep the lake filled and supply the water needed to work the locks.” ”

“ The valley of the river Gambar may be regarded as an excellent specimen of a smaller Himalayan river, draining a large extent of country, and discharging its waters independently into the plains, though not, like the first-class rivers, deriving its origin from the snowy mountains. The southern border of the basin of the Gambar, is of course the main chain of the South Sutlej Himalaya; and the whole of the country between the Jutog spur, which leaves that chain at Simla, and the Kussowlee ridge, the origin of which I have already detailed, is drained by the Gambar and its tributaries. ”

“ Cocoa and palm oil and rubber all come to the river or grow within a short distance of its banks, and all tropical fruits and native food-stuffs flourish like weeds. Beauty is perhaps hardly an asset in West Africa, but the Volta is a most beautiful river. The Gambia is interesting, the Congo grand, but the Volta is entrancingly lovely. I have heard men rave of the beauty of the Thames, and it certainly is a pleasant river, with its smooth, green lawns, its shady trees, and its picturesque houses ”

“ Nothing was changed much, except the ever-changing mud tembés of the Arabs. The square or plaza where I met David Livingstone in November, 1871, is now occupied by large tembés. The house where he and I lived has long ago been burned down, and in its place there remain only a few embers and a hideous void. The lake expands [Pg 151] with the same grand beauty before the eyes as we stand in the market-place. The opposite mountains of Goma have the same blue-black color, for they are everlasting, and the Liuché River continues its course as brown as ever just east and south of Ujiji. ”

“ In mountainous districts landslips sometimes occur and block the valley of a stream which then forms a lake. The water gradually rises and eventually flows over the dam and sweeps it away causing a flood, which is of great suddenness and height but decreases very quickly in height as it travels down the valley. In a case which occurred in the Himalayas in 1888 the inhabitants of the valleys, from the dam to the point where the river debouches from the hills, were compelled by Government to vacate all habitations below the probable level of the flood, and no loss of life occurred. ”

“ Beyond the basin of Lake Tana the Abyssinian towns belonging to the watershed of the Abai or Blue Nile are mostly situated on the plateau or on the broad grassy terraces of the extensive plains bordering the right bank of the river, and affording pasturage for herds of large cattle and horses. Mota, one of the most important markets in the "kingdom" of Gojam, is situated on an elevation at the extremity of the plateaux which bound the northern base of the Talba Waha Mountains ”

“ After having passed the great chain of mountains, called Dyre and Tegla, between lat. 11° and 12° N. where are the great cataracts, they again came into the flat country of the Gongas, as far as Bizamo, nearly in 9° N. there the river, leaving its hitherto constant direction, N. and S. turns due E. and surrounds Gojam.
It is probable the discoverers, always looking for it to the south, took this unusual sudden turn east to be only a winding of the river, which would soon be compensated by an equal return to the west where they would meet it again ”

“ At Gohna, India, in 1893, the face of a spur four thousand feet high, of the lower ranges of the Himalayas, slipped into the gorge of the headwaters of the Ganges River in successive rock falls which lasted for three days. Blocks of stone were projected for a mile, and clouds of limestone dust were spread over the surrounding country. The debris formed a dam one thousand feet high, extending for two miles along the valley. A lake gathered behind this barrier, gradually rising until it overtopped it in a little less than a year. ”

“ George are all intergrades, the majority of their affinities as would be expected are with planirostris from Zion National Park. The river itself is not an impassable barrier for gophers to the north and south of it, since this stream frequently changes its course, and often nearly dries up. The Virgin River Valley in Zion National Park is in the bottom of a relatively deep, narrow canyon which has sheer rock escarpments. The upper reaches of the river are inhabited by pocket gophers of another species, Thomomys talpoides. ”

“ It descended from Ulding abruptly to the level of the Dras river, to cross at its point of junction a large tributary whose source is in the eastern slopes of Deotsu. A succession of steep ascents and descents followed for four or five miles, throughout which distance the ravine through which the river ran was narrow and precipitous and quite without villages. Further up, the valley widened a little, the mountains rose less steeply, and left narrow strips of level ground along the margin of the stream. ”

“ The old stagers always seem thinking of some point a little way ahead which they would much prefer to have behind them. Sometimes it is a bad bit of road which can only be traversed in broad daylight; sometimes a river which may suddenly be rendered unfordable by the intervention of an unforeseen spate. On this stage the unknown factor was the conduct of the Khozr river, a much more considerable stream than the Gomel, which lay some four hours further east ”

“ The Tochi, and the Gomul River south of it, must be regarded as highways to Ghazni, but there is no comparison between the two as regards their facilities or the amount of traffic which they carry. All the carrying trade of the Ghazni province is condensed into the narrow ways of the Gomul. Trade in the Tochi hardly extends farther than the villages at its head. About the Gomul there hangs many a tale of adventure, albeit adventure of rather ancient date, for it is exceedingly doubtful if any living European has ever trod more than the lower steps of that ancient staircase. ”

“ The Nile never flows over the top of the dam, but always through the gates and the canal at one side. When the gates are closed during the dry season, enough water is held back by this structure of steel and granite to form a [133] lake over one hundred miles long, and this is let out as needed to supplement the ordinary flow of the river and give the crops plenty of water all summer through. There is water enough in the reservoir to give all the families of the United States all they could use for four or five months, and enough to supply Great Britain and Ireland the entire year. ”

“ The river had suddenly disappeared; there was apparently an end to the White Nile. The dam was about three-quarters of a mile wide, was perfectly firm, and was already overgrown with high reeds and grass, thus forming a continuation of the surrounding country. Many of the traders' people had died of the plague at this spot during the delay of some weeks in cutting the canal; the graves of these dead were upon the dam. The bottom of the canal that had been cut through the dam was perfectly firm, composed of sand, mud, and interwoven decaying vegetation. ”

“ If Ngami rises by means of its inflow, the current is down the Cubango toward the “Salt Pans.” If however the “Pans” overflow, by means of their other tributaries, the current is up the Cubango toward Lake Ngami. So that among the other natural wonders of Africa we have not only a system of great rivers pouring themselves into an inland sea with no outlet except the clouds, but also a great river actually flowing two ways for a distance of over a hundred miles, as the one or the other lake on its course happens to be fullest. ”