The Mahanadi rises in the Raipur district, in lat. 20° 10' N., and long. 82° 3' E., and, after a tortuous course of 520 miles through the Central Provinces and Orissa, falls into the Bay of Bengal. Its catchment basin is estimated at 43,800 square miles; flow is rapid, and its flood-discharge 1,800,000 cubic feet per second. An elaborate system of canals has been constructed to husband its water, and . designed to irrigate 1,600,000 acres.
The Godavery river, rising near Trimbak, in lat. 19° 55' N., and long. 73° 34' E., 50 miles from the sea, runs through the Hyderabad dominions into the Northern Circars, where it forms a delta of 3000 square miles, and enters the Bay of Bengal by seven mouths (three of which are large), .after a course of 898 miles. Its drainage basin, 112,200 square miles. A great dam has been constructed across it at Dowlaish waram, the head of its delta.
The Kistna river is south of the Godavery. It also has been largely utilized for irrigation, by throwing a dam across it at Bezwara. It rises near Mahabaleshwar, in lat. 18° 1' N., and long. 73° 41' E. Its catchment basin is 95,500 square miles, and its maximum flood discharge is 1,188,000 cubic feet per second.
Still further south is the Cauvery, the of Ptolemy, with a river basin of 27,700 spare miles. It flows across the southern parts of the Peninsula. It rises in the Western Ghats, In lat. 12° 25' N:, and long. 75° 34' E.; and its lengt5 is 465 miles. It is one of the twelve holy river; of the Hindus, who call it the Dakshina Ganga. Crowds of Hindu pilgrims annually visit its banks. Its waters are utilized for irrigation in MYsbre and in Coimbatore ; and at Srirangam, near Trichinopoly, a prehistoric Hindu king constructed a dam, and led off its waters into the Cauvery proper and Colerun ; 835,000 acres in the districts of Trichin opoly, Tanjore, and S. Arcot are now irrigated by it, yielding a revenue of £353,000. the benefits it bestows on those districts, it vies, in usefulness with the canals of the Godavery, the Ganges, and the Indus.
In the river system of British India there is a, peculiarity which merits notice. Shortly after issuing from the mountains among which they rise, the rivers run through low-lying valleys to the sea. Their fall is so gentle, that, following their winding's for even 1000 miles from tho ocean, they arc still found in beds only seven or eight hundred feet above the level of the sea.
Where the united streams of the Panjab join the Indus, the altitude is only 369 feet at a distance of 450 miles from the sea ; the confluence of the Ganges and Jumna at ..kllahabad, 846 miles from the sea, is 340 feet. This peculiarity is the more worthy of notice, because, throughout these terri tories, there are no natural inland lakes or seas which can be used for commerce, most of them being only fit for purposes of irrigation. The largest natural waters in the country are equalled, and in many cases surpassed, by the magnificent tanks which have been formed in several places by throwing embankments across great' valleys. The many shallow marine lagoons, known as backwaters, found running close around the shores of the Bay of Bengal and of the. Indian Ocean, some of them from 20 to 50 mile's long, are, how ever, well meriting notice, and greater attention than has hitherto been given to them, as they afford facilities for a safe inland traffic along the coast line, the violence of the monsoons and the few sheltered harbours on the eastern coast of the Peninsula rendering navigation at times peril ous, and periodically impossible. After the East India Railway was opened, steamers ceased to ply upon the Ganges, but they still run on the Brali maputra and its tributary the Barak, also on the Irawadi, and on the Indus.
Ancient India.—Dr. Vincent was inclined to believe that in the very earliest ages, even prior to Moses, the communication with India was open ; that the intercourse with that continent was in the hands of the Arabians; that Thebes had owed its splendour to that commerce; that Memphis, from the same cause, came to the same pre-eminence, and Cairo succeeded to both in wealth, grandeur, and magnificence. Passing by the mythological Bacchus, also Semiramis, queen of the Assyrians, who is said to have crossed the Indus about n.c. 1960, and to have been defeated by Stabrobates, as also Sesostris, king of Egypt, who is said to have led an army to the Ganges B.c. 1308, we come to the first mention in the Bible, of India, by that name, in the book of Esther about B.C. 450.