THE INDIAN PENINSULA 157

from the Tapti Valley southward, is flanked by the Western
Ghats, which here run to about 3000 feet above sea, and
about 1000 above the general level of the plateau.
Passing now to those river systems of the south which
have their birth in the west and are finally lost in the
eastern seas—the Godavari, the Kistna (or Krishna), the
Kavari (Cauvery), and other minor rivers—we find a certain
 general similarity pervading the surroundings of them
all. All of them flow through the Dekkan highlands for
a great part of their course, and all of them make their
Gnal exit to the ocean through the flat alluvial delta
bordering the coast.
The Godavari is by far the most important river of
the central districts of India, and it is by far the most
comprehensive in the structure of its upper basin. Its
main branch rises on the west, not far from Bombay, and
not more than 5o miles from the coast. It has another
branch (the Wainganga) which rises not far from the
centre of India, and hardly 5o miles from Jubbulpur ;
and it has yet another branch (the Indravati) which rises
about go miles from the eastern coast, a little to the
north of Vizianagram.
The Godavari is essentially the river of the Dekkan,
and for two-thirds of its course it passes through the
dominions of the Nizam of Haidarabad. The tableland
which forms the upper part of its basin is comparatively
bare of trees wherever the plain extends. The Western
Ghats and the southern hills (which contain the sources of
the Kavari) are well wooded, and some of the small
valleys enclosed between the barren rocky hills which
intersect the plain are highly cultivated. Black “cotton”
soil again prevails over the whole surface of the plateau.
During the rains it is a grass country, green with cultivation
 ; but in spring and summer the bare, brown, level
surface is only relieved by clouds of dust, which are
whirled along by the furnace blasts of the hot wind.
The heat is extreme.
Although for the most part the Godavari drains a
country broken by hills, it is a comparatively wide and