'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from January 1847 to May 1849. Edited by the Secretary. Volume VIII.' [‎123] (232/496)

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of boats to carry on the goods which may be sent, and an unity of
working, which only could be secured by a River Company, or by a
Government establishment.
17. If the transport of coal should answer, doubtless improvements
will follow, and other produce could be carried : the subject is one of
great interest, and shall receive every attention from me. Meanwhile, I
hope the enterprize of Lieutenant Evans wdll be deemed such as to
merit the approbation of the Governor-in-Couneil, for it was attended
with much personal risk and exposure, all of which Lieutenant Evans
voluntarily incurred to establish the fact of the practicability of navigat
ing the Nerbudda during the rainy season.
I have the honor to be, &c.,
(Signed) R. N. C. Hamilton,
Indore Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. , 2ith August, 1847. Resident,
Report of a Voyage down the Nerbudda from Mundlaisir to Baroach,
in the month of July, 1847.
I LEFT Mundlaisir on the morning of the 22nd July 1847, having two
boats—one the common ferry-boat, flat-bottomed, wall-sided, about 30
feet long, 4|- broad, and 2^- high, requiring four men to manage, and
capable of carrying six maunds pucka (2,880 lbs.); and the other consist
ing of three canoes lashed together, with a platform of bamboos upon
them. This latter I took, having some doubt as to the possibility of
getting a large boat down the Hirn Phal rapids, remembering what
Captain Anderson had done (vide his report,) and intending, in case
of extreme difficulty, to unlash the canoes and carry them round the
rapids, launching them again below. The result, however, will show
that the flat-bottomed are the boats of all calculated in all seasons for
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this navigation.
2. We reached Chiculdah on the 24th, a distance I suppose of
nearly 60 miles ; the only obstruction below Mundlaisir to this point,
is the Sahesur Dharra.* This has been so well described by Captain
Anderson, that I need not enlarge upon it. It can either be got over by
a road along the southern bank, or by, as he proposes, deepening the
* The boats were let down by ropes attached to the helm, by a channel in the
middle of the belt of rocks, the said channel being a rocky slope, in which the
water was some two feet deep. In the fair weather, when the river is low, boats
go by the backwater channel.