The previous state of peace is brought to an end, there is a rapid in this part of the river, and the banks are cut away. The river, as it subsides, tries to resume a meandering course, but in order to do so has to change its course for miles above and below the rapid ; rich fields may be swept away, the villagers may see their unripened crops disappear in the waters ; their houses may follow suit ; new lands may be left high and dry, which formerly were covered by the river, and in the abandoned bends are formed those "jheels," so well known to sportsmen. To use the words of Mr. F. J. E. Spring, C.I.E., an authority on this subject, "In the course of years there is scarcely an acre within the valley limits which will not, sooner or later, be eroded quite away, and in turn re-formed."
Shall we be very far wrong in assuming that this state of affairs existed in the Jumna valley, near Delhi, and that the liability of the plains to be flooded caused the founder of Old Delhi, whoever he may have been, to choose a site for his city on the rocky hills near the Kutb Minar ? Is it not possible, even, that when Indraprastha was founded the river flowed about in its present course, and that gradually it took a more westerly course, encroached little by little, and swept the city away ? Remember that the probable date
