more than one place. At Tallapúdi above Rajahmundry it presses hard against the right bank, which is in many places cut down precipitously by the action of the stream, and Tallapúdi and other villages, which used to be some distance from the river, now stand on its bank. In 1679 the encroachments of the river at Narasapur on the Vasishta Gódávari forced many of the English merchants to leave their houses.*[1]
The greater portion of the area drained by the Gōdávari The season of receives more rain in the south-west than in the north-east I's floods. monsoon, and it is during the former, therefore, that the river brings down most water. It begins to rise at Dowlaishweram some ten days after the south-west rains set in at Bombay — usually about the middle of June — and it is almost always high till October. The season for floods is then over; but during the next two months or so occasional freshes are caused by the north-east monsoon rains. When these have ceased the river gets lower and lower, till about the middle of May (its lowest stage) its discharge is at times as little as 1,500 cubic feet per second.
The navigation on the river and on the delta canals is referred to in Chapter VII.
Two tributaries of the Gódávari flow through this district. The Saveri rises in the hills in the Vizagapatam Agency, and afterwards runs in a south-westerly course, forming for some distance the boundary between that tract and the Bastar State. It receives several tributaries on the way, and, at the point where Bastar, Vizagapatam and Gódávari meet, is joined by the Siléru river from the hills of Jeypore. The latter forms for many miles the boundary between the Rampa country of this district and the Jeypore zamindari. The united waters of these two rivers are much used for floating timber from the Rékapalle hills, which are enclosed between the Saveri and the Godavari.
One or two insignificant streams run down from the north into the Gódávari, and from the Tuni hills into the sea; but the only other noteworthy river in the district is the Yeléru. This is formed by the union of three streams which take their rise in the hills of Rampa, Golgonda and Jaddangi respectively and unite a little to the north-east of Yellavaram. It flows through Peddápuram taluk to a point a little above Viravaram, where it again separates into several streams. The western-most of these continues its course, still under the name of the parent stream, along the boundary of Pithápuram division into Cocanada taluk; passes under the Samalkot canal, which
- ↑ * Journa' of the tour of the Agent of Fort St. George to Madapollam in 1679.
