BAH The Kauriala
97
from the hills of Naip^l at a place called the Shisha P^ni or " Crystal Waters," some 24 miles north of Bharthapur. Flowing deep, clear, and silent through the gorge which affords it an outlet from the mountains, it finds itself within sight of the plains through which it has to run its course it then sweeps violently down, rapid after rapid, over immense houlders, which it has during the course of ages brought down with it from the hills. The Kauriala
issues
river.
Almost immediately after it debouches, the stream splits into two, the Girwa flowing eastward with a volume of water The Girwa superior to that of the main stream. Even in the cold season when the waters are at their lowest, in most places it is with difficulty that an elephant can cross these streams, parted though they
are, so violent is the rush of water. After a course of about eighteen miles through the midst of fine sal forests and over rough stony beds, the twin streams enter British Territory at the very extreme north-western corner of the district where the Kauriala is joined by the Mohdn. few miles below Bharthapur, they reunite from the point of junction their bed is sandy.
A
Almost immediately below the confluence of the Kauriala and Girwa,
- ^® stream is joined by the Suheli from the Kheri
The Sarda. district, but it receives no affluents of any importance from the Bahraich side until, after forming the boundary of the district for about 47 miles, it is joined at a point just above Katai Ghit by the Sarju. This stream, which enters the district from Naip^l about 22 miles from the Kauriala down the frontier line, is separated from The Sarju. ^j^^ latter by a high tract of forest land it flows almost
due south with an exceedingly tortuous course of 70 miles (from point to point 30 miles only), and falls into the Kauriala at the place noted above. Less than eighty years ago, however, this stream, instead of joining the Kauriala in this district, flowed in a distinct channel of its own, and united with the Gogra in the Gonda district. It was a European merchant trading in timber who found the Sarju channel a difficult and tedious road, and by way of securing more expeditious river transit for his logs turned the stream into an old channel which ultimately conducted its waters into the Kauriala. flowed from a point just below Takia Ghat between Bitinhiyan and Patruyia and between Kakaraha and The old course of the j^t^^ira Kalan, whence its course is marked to the pre^^^^' This last mentioned sent day by the Chhota Sarju. stream stiU conveys surplus surface water southwards in the old channel, passing within a mile of Bahraich itself and running through the Hisampur pargana. It ultimately joins the Gogra at Paska in the Gonda district.
The
old stream
Ghat, just below the confluence of the Kauriala and Sarju th& united streams are swelled by the Chauka and Other affluents of the D^hdwar from the Kheri district, but the river, now °^*' called the Gogra, receives no more affluents from the east side after the Sarju as long as it remains the boundary of Bahraich at
At Katai
G
