Page:A descriptive and historical account of the Godavery District in the presidency of Madras (IA descriptivehisto00morrrich).pdf/22

 4 THE GODAVERY DISTRICT.

river has been increasing in width, gencrally being a mile broad, and sometimes eyen two anda half miles. Here also the whole range of the Eastern Ghauts comes fully into view, some 2500 feet high, bounding the whole horizon, and towering over all the lesser and detached hills that flank the river. Passing the Sabari junction, the Godavery becomes more and more contracted and pressed on either side by spurs of the main range, till at length it forces a passage between them, penetrating by an almost precipitous gorge throngh the heart of the mountains that mark the frontier of the Central Provinces,” *

The gorge through which the Godavery enters the plains forms one of the most beautiful pieces of scenery in Southern India. The best time to seo it in all its grandeur is, unfortunately, the most dangerous to the health. During the rainy, and, consequently, the feverish, season the forest trees put on their most luxuriant foliage, whereas later in the season, the underwood, especially the bamboos, and the grass, aro parched by the continual glaro of the sun; and the river itself is not at its full height. Ihave seen the gorge at both seasons; I have looked down on the river from the mountains which overhang it; and I have passed through the winding stream, as the early morn- ing sun gradually lightod up hill after hill, leaving the water in shade, and as the sotting sun has gradually left the valley in gloom; and I can confidently assert that I have never witnessed moro exquisite scenery even on the Neilgherries or the Shevaroys. As the steamer glides into the gorge, the low, broken hills which had previously adorned the banks of the rivor disappear, and the moun- tains close up to the water's edge, in one place the two sides approaching as near each other as 200 yards, and the precipitous banks appearing near enough even to be touched. They then open out, and again approach each other, forming successively beautiful little lakes, resembling Highland lochs, from which thore is appa- rently no outlet. Sir Charles Trevelyan compares the scenery to that of the Rhine between Coblentz and Bingen; but it lacks the signs of human life which adorn, and the historical antiquities which beautify, the Huropean stream. Here and there a faint line of smoke indicates the existence of a Koi village; but the hills are very sparscly inhabited, and there are yory few villages near the river-banks,


 * Gront’s Gavetteer of the Central Provinces, 2d edition, p. 198.

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