Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924024153987).pdf/670

 — GUM

592'

Thornton writes

as follows



A

" The river certainly admits of navigation to an important extent. small steamer belonging to the king of Oudh tested its capability in this respect". Tieffenthaler observes that the breadth of the river is more remarkable than its depth. Though its value for the purpose of navigation and irrigation is great, the water according to Butter is often contaminated by gross impurities, andoccasionally becomes the sourceof disease. During the rainy season the water of the Gumti is loaded with an immense quantity of yellow clay, and becomes unfit for drinking, and when any great mortality prevails along its banks, a putrid scum forms upon its surface, occasioned by the number of dead bodies thrown into it.

by the periodical rains, rising and falling annually and according to tradition the variation formerly was much

It is greatly affected

about 15 feet



At all times it is excellently adapted for navigation, its waters never dispersing themselves over a greater breadth than 140 yards, and having generally a depth of four feet in the driest season while its excessive windings which lengthen its course 75 per cent, answer the purpose It is, however, intersectof canal locks in diminishing slope and rapidity. ed at every four or six miles by kankar ridges, of two' or three yards in width, which in the dry season, sometimes diminish the depth to two feet. These ridges can be removed at no great expense. At present the few boats which convey supplies to Lucknow return empty. During the rainy season boats of 1,000 to 1,200 maunds ( 40 tons ) are sometimes seen proceeding to Lucknow. The river continues its course in a southeasterly direction, from Lucknow, and about 70 miles below, it, according to Surveyor General's map, receives on the left side in latitude 26°, longitude 81° 40', the Kalyani, a stream flowing from the north-west and having a course of about 80 miles. Below this confluence the river's right bank is generally high and consists of solid kankar, the left low and greater.



~

sandy.

170 miles south-east of Lucknow by the river's in the dry season 100 yards wide, with a depth of four feet, and a current of two miles an hour. About 52 miles lower down, and in the same direction it passes over the Oudh frontier into the district of Jaunpur, and flows through it for 30 miles, to the town of the same name when its breadth is such as to require a bridge of 1-6 fine arches. About 18 miles below that town on the right side it receives the river Sai, and in latitude 25° 29', longitude 83° 15' Close it falls into the Ganges on the left side, after a course of 4f<2 miles. above its mouth, it is crossed by means of a bridge of boats from the middle of October to the middle of June, and during the rains by ferry The Gumti might be utilized for irrigation purposes, by building dams across it, but this would be very expensive as the soil is so sandy that the water would percolate through them unless constructed in a very solid " At Sultanpur about

course, the stream

is

"

manner.

The cold weather discharge of the Gumti is only 500 feet per second Lucknow the banks are irregular and from 30 to 70 feet high. South

at

of

.