THE FALLS OF THE GODAVERY.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—The interesting letters which have appeared in your last and previous issues on the above subject induce me to observe that while from personal experience I am enabled to confirm the statements of both your correspondents regard- ing the characteristics of the Godavery rapids and the Gersoppa Falls, I feel assured from my long residence in Mysore that as a probable future generator of electrical current the well-known falls of the Cauvery, sixty miles south-west from Bangalore, are incomparably superior to any others in India. Gersoppa no doubt, from a pic- turesque point of view, is the most splendid waterfall in Asia, if not in the world, the great "Rajah" Fall making a sheer plunge of 830 ft. into the abyss below; but it is placed entirely out of the way for all industrial purposes, at the north-west corner of Mysore, and is other- wise so handicapped by physical difficulties that, to the beet of my judgment, many long years must elapse before it could be put to use for electrical purposes.
It is, however, quite otherwise as regards the falls of the Cauvery at Sivasamoodrum. As is well known, the volume of this river, which has a perennial supply in the Western Ghauts, is such that a portion of it alone suffices, in the great Cauvery Delta works of the Madras Presidency, with which the name of the late Sir Arthur Cotton will always be so honour- ably associated, to irrigate no less than 840,000 acres of rice. Immediately above Sivasamoodrum the river divides into two channels, by the southernmost of which it tumbles over a precipice more than 300 ft. in height, producing a waterfall which in width, grandeur, and general conformation closely resembles the world-renowned "Horseshoe Fall?' of Niagara. The other branch of the river bifurcates below
Sivasamoodrum, and running closely together the two, at about three-quarters of a mile north of the first-named fall, tumble into the lower trough of the Cauvery, one as a magnificent cascade, the other in sheer overfills which, I should say, are quite unequalled in grandeur, the whole neighbouring cliffs quivering under the impact. Taken as a whole this group of falls, while equally impressive and quite double the height of Niagara, give rise to much more varied and splendid views. Where alone they fall short, especially in the monsoon, is the want of clearness and transparency in the water which we all know constitutes one of the main charms of Niagara, Schaffhausen, and all waterfalls below lakes.
In the present connection, however, the main point is whether these falls would readily lend themselves by position and otherwise to the economical generation of electrical current. Of this, I venture to think, there can be no possible doubt, judging from what one sees at the Niagara power- house, where by the extraction of a relatively infinitesimally small quantity of water from the Upper St. Lawrence, by a short canal and turbines, electrical current equal to forty thousand horse-power is generated, and has already been successfully transmitted to Buffalo, twenty-eight miles distant. As shown by Professor Forbes, it is only a question of providing copper wire of adequate sections, in order to ensure the transmission of current to any distance, up even to five hundred miles, without serious loss in potentiality. When, therefore, it is considered that the great goldfields of the Oolar District of Mysore are only distant ninety miles as the crow flies, the large town of Bangalore sixty miles, and the city of Mysore thirty miles, it is only reasonable to assume that the magnificent falls of the Cauvery must before long, like Niagara, be harnessed to the electrical car for industrial purposes.—I am, Sir, Sze., R. H. SANKEY, Lieut.-General.
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