Page:The Seven Cities of Delhi.djvu/118

 light on this question ; but the processes of nature, slow but sure, have probably obliterated much of the evidence.

Whatever influence the "Daria" had on the shifting of the cities of Delhi, there has certainly been a great change in the climatic conditions, so that the wells in Old Delhi have almost dried up, the tanks and reservoirs are never now filled, and it would be impossible for a large population to exist within the walls. The Hindu proverb thus is justified ; and it was the vagaries of the river, and the failure of the clouds to pour down their waters, rather than the caprice of emperors, which have been the causes of the construction of so many cities, where one would have otherwise sufficed.