GAZETTEER
OF THE
VIZAGAPATAM DISTRICT.
CHAPTER I.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION.
General Description—Position and boundaries—Taluks and chief towns—Etymology of name—Natural divisions. Hills—In the Parvatipur division—The 3,000 feet plateau—Galikonda as a sanitarium —The 2,000 feet plateau—The Malkanagiri taluk. Rivers—The Varaha—The Sarada—The Chittivalasa river—The Gostani—The Langulya—The Vamsadhara—The T61—The Indravati—The Kolab and Saveri—The Sileru. Soils. Climate—Rainfall—Temperature. Geology. Minerals—Manganese—Iron—Graphite—Limestone—Steatite—Sapphirine—A meteorite. Flora. Fauna—Domestic animals; cattle—Sheep—Goats—Game.
Vizagapatam lies on the east coast of the Presidency and, except Chap. I. General Description. Ganjam, is the northernmost of all the Madras districts. Its head-quarters, after which it is named, is 487 miles by rail from Madras. It is the largest district in India and the most populous in the Province, having an area of no less than 17,222 square miles and containing, in 1901, 2,933,650 inhabitants. On the east (see the map in the pocket at the end of this volume) it is bounded by the Bay of Bengal and Ganjam; on the north by the Native State of Kalahandi in Bengal, which runs down into it like a wedge, and by the Raipur zamindari of the Central Provinces; on the west by the Native State of Bastar belonging to the same Provinces; and south by the Godavari district of this Presidency. Here and there the boundaries follow for some distance the courses of various rivers, but usually, excepting the line of the coast, they are not defined by any well-marked natural features.
As the map shows, Vizagapatam consists of an open strip of Taluks and chief towns. land facing the shore, and of two large areas of hilly country rising north and west of this. These hills are for the most part