take the passengers' fees, and pay rent to the District Board. They are inspected by the District Board Engineer from time to time to ensure that they are maintained in a safe and proper condition. The Public Works department has one or two steamers at Dowlaishweram which are used by officials for inspections or journeys on the river.
A great deal of goods and passenger traffic is also carried on the river in native sailing-boats. These are generally 'dhónis,' which run up to 35 tons capacity. They go up by the Dummagúdem canal referred to below when there is enough water in the river and the canal is open (usually from June to January), and travel a long way above Dummagúdem. Going up stream they sail when the wind is favourable, and, when it is not, pole or, when possible, tow. Coming down stream they either sail or row, or drift with the current, rowing just enough to keep on steerage way. Rafts of timber (see below) come down the Upper Gódávari from December to May.
The project of opening up the navigation of the Upper Gódávari was first urged on the attention of Government in 1851. A vast amount of money was expended on it; but it was eventually pronounced too expensive to be remunerative, and was abandoned.
Sir Arthur Cotton, a vigorous advocate and promoter of water carriage, was the first to broach the subject. He hoped that it might be possible to provide 'still-water steam navigation from the sea to Berar,' which would be, he said, 'the cheapest line of communication in the world.' It was decided in 1853 to investigate the project; and careful and repeated examinations of the river were carried out.1[1] The great difficulty to be overcome was the existence of three remarkable barriers of rock, forming rapids which are only navigable during floods. The first of these, which is nine miles long, begins near Dummagúdem, at a distance of 143 miles from the sea; the second at Enchampalli, just below the junction with the Indrávati and 220 miles from the river's mouth; and the third, called the Dewalamurry barrier, at a point 310 miles from the sea. These barriers excepted, it was estimated that there was sufficient water in the river during nine months in the year for steamers drawing from two to four feet of water, according to the state of the river. The fall of the river is moderate; and during half the year the current was estimated to be only a mile and a half per hour, and rarely
- ↑ 1 Among the fruits of these is Lieut. F.T. Haig's Report on the Navigability of the River Godavery (Madras, 1856), which contains elaborate plans and diagrams and a fund of information on the ways of the river.
