VI] IRRIGATION A'ID NA FIGATIOiV 36
navigable as high as Cawnpore, and steamers also pass up the
Gogra as far as Fvzlbhd. Steam navigation on the Indus and
the Upper Ganges has, however, been greatly reduced by the
development of rail traffic, though on the Bengal portion of the
Ganges it is still active. The Brahmaputra is navigable by
steamers as high as Dibrugarh, and there is steam navigation
on its tributary the Surmn as far inland as Sylhet and Cachar.
The Hooghly is navigable all the year round up to Nadia, and
steamers can pass up the Nadia rivers above this point from
July to October. The great rivers on the east coast of the
Peninsula-the Mahanadi, the Godavari, and the Kistna-are
all navigable for some distance above the heads of their deltas,
but the traffic on them is not very considerable. Many tribu-
taries or branches of these rivers are also navigable during the
monsoon months, and several are open to small craft all the
year round. There are, in effect, all round the coast innumer-
able small rivers, creeks, and backwaters affording facilities for
water transport which are fully utilized by small native craft;
but outside the zone of such operations inland navigation is
practically confined to the deltas and to the valleys of the
great rivers which form the natural waterways of the country.
As to Burma, there is no Province in which the natural
waterways afford greater facilities for inland navigation, or in
which it is more extensively practised. In the Arakan
Division the Maya and Kaladan rivers are navigable by
steamers during a great part of the year for distances of 50
and go miles respectively above Akyab. Many of the other
rivers which fall into the Bay of Bengal are similarly navigable
for some miles above the seaboard, and native craft can of
course proceed much farther inland. Farther east the great
Irrawaddy river, which traverses nearly the whole length of
Upper and Lower Burma (excluding Tenasserim), is navigable
by steamers at all seasons of the year as high as Bhamo, or
more than 50o miles from its mouth, and steam launches and
country boats can proceed much higher, or for some distance
to the north of Myitkyini. The numerous deltaic channels
which fall into the Bay of Bengal from the Irrawaddy form
waterways connected with the main river and with the sea,
which are for the most part navigable throughout the year,
while higher up many of the tributaries of this river are
navigable for some distance above their confluences. Of these
the two most important are the Chindwin and Myitnge rivers,
the former of which is navigable by steamers during the mon-
soon as high as Homalin in the twenty-fifth parallel of latitude,
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