GOG
498
Ghat near Chupra is generally about Rs. 5 per 100 local maimds, but Rs. 10 were charged in 1874 during the scarcity; 100 local maunds equal 45 British. The railway fare from Bahramghat would be to Arrah, 302 miles, at J pie per pakka maund per mile, for 45 pakka maunds, Rs. 17-11. In famine times the railway rates are lowered to ^th of a pie per maund the charge then would be Rs. 9, just about the same to which the boatmen raise theirs in such an emergency. But it is apparent that in ordinary times carriage by rail will cost three times as much as by river, even from the immediate neighbourhood of a railway station. From ChahMri Ghat the rate is to Chupra or Arrah 5 to 6 rupees, from Shitabi Ghat in Khairigarh, the farthest ascent made by large boats, the rate is about Rs. 7 per 100 local maunds. The jouraey lasts about fifteen days, the distance is about 350 miles. In the rains, if the wind is fair, as it generally is, a boat can make twenty or even forty miles per day against the stream. The waters of the Gogra are at a considerable depth below the surface of the country on each side. to Simaria
Four miles from the bank the latter is thirty feet above the water. Paharapur, which is about eight miles from the bank, is 453 feet above the sea the Gogra at Mallapur, just opposite, is 375 the river therefore does little harm in the way of flooding, and its water can only be applied for irrigation to a very limited degree. There are no towns of any size on the banks, except Fyzabad.
For a more general account of this river system, see the article S&da, which contains also a detailed account of the Chauka, with which stream its name seems indissolubly commingled, just as are its waters.
The broad features of the river system are as follows. Two great rivers burst through the hills, each rising in the upper ranges of the Himalayas they are the Sarda and the Kauriala those are their names in the upper country. They have at different times united at different places, up to 1810 at Shitabi Ghdt, in pargana Khairigarh then, up to 1860, at Bahramghat; now, since that date, at Malldpur. These changes, of course, have left channels bearing various names, the Suheli, the Chauka, the Dahawar by the last -the two now unite ; in the two former, shrunken waters still
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flow.
The delta of alluvial land through which they pass may be indicated loosely as stretching from Lakhimpur to Bahraich, a breadth of about 56 This is throughout a region of low land, flooded in heavy rains, miles. seamed with the ramifying channels of many rivers ; in some places forest It is green and picturesque, but glades, in others deep lagunes. unhealthy.
The Gogra is only bridged at Bahramghat and Fyzabad. An account of the different ferries is subjoined. The river flows for 203 miles in Gudh, or on its borders.
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