RAINFALL, AND SEASONS.
running full from bank to bank when every one of its tributaries came down simultaneously in flood. It rose twelve feet above the level of ordinary freshes and inundated the whole of its valley. The fine bridge over it near Chódavaram was swept away and that at Anakápalle (the parapet walls of which were 1½ feet under water) was only saved by the road on either side of it breaching. Most of the best tanks in the Golgonda taluk were breached; the rice crop in the Anakápalle plain was almost a total loss; and in that town 987 houses and 149 cattle were destroyed and 29 lives were lost. In the Sárada valley as a whole, 414 persons, about 5,000 cattle, and 25,000 sheep and goats were drowned. Many of the bodies were swept out to sea. Some of the survivors were living on trees and house-tops for three days. A large French steamer, theCoromandal , was driven ashore at Vátáda and a French barque, the Quatre Cœurs, at Rájayyapéta. The damage to roads and to Government buildings and irrigation works in the district was estimated at Rs. 80,000.
Earthquakes have been reported as occurring in the district on the 6th January 1827, 24th August 1859, 19th December 1870 and 31st December 1881, but none of them did any damage.
155
