Page:Provincial geographies of India (Volume 3).djvu/46

 district. Near Alambādi in Coimbatore is the smoking rock, so named from a rock which throws up a cloud of spray from the middle of the river. According to native belief, there is a hole or chasm, four palm trees deep, into which the water falls. At the island of Srirangam, near Trichino- poly, which is about nineteen miles in length, the river divides into two main delta-branches, the Coleroon or Kollidam and Cauvery, which irrigate the fertile delta called the garden of South India. The former enters the Bay of Bengal near Dēvikotta, and the latter shrinks into an insignificant stream.

The chief tributaries of the Cauvery in the Madras Presidency are the Bhavāni, Noyil, and Amarāvati. The Bhavāni, famous for its mahseer {Barbus tor) fishing, which rises in the Attapādi valley in Malabar, is joined by the Moyar, and, flowing past Mettupalaiyam, where it is crossed by the Nīlgiri railway, unites with the Cauvery near the town of Bhavāni. The Moyar commences as the Paikāra river, which rises on the slopes of Mūkarti peak on the Nīlgiris, and, flowing past Paikāra, forms the Paikāra falls, and so reaches the Wynaad plateau. Under the name of the Moyar it runs through the Mysore ditch, separating the Nīlgiris from Mysore, and enters the Bhavāni.

The Vaigai river rises by two streams, which drain the Kumbam and Varushanād valleys of the Madura district, and receives much of the water from the Palni hills. Passing the town of Madura, it enters the Bay of Bengal about lo miles east of Rāmnād. Its water-supply has been much increased in recent years by the Periyar Project.

The Tāmbraparni river rises on the slopes of Agasty- amalai, a conical peak in the Travancore State, and reaches the plains of the Tinnevelly district by the falls of Pāpa- nāsam (papa, sin ; nasam, destruction). This is a very sacred spot, with a Saivite temple, and is visited by large numbers of pilgrims. The fish in the river are fed from the temple