20 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1890. 



however, does not belong to the British Government, and, as a 

 fact, only 160 miles of the borders march with English territory, 

 out of a total of 2,700 miles. They are thus almost entirely isolated 

 from other purely British provinces. They are geographically 

 divided into two parts by the Satpura range of mountains. Com- 

 mencing in the east at the peak of Amarkantak, 3,500 high, 

 these mountains stretch away till they meet the Western Ghats, 

 gradually decreasing in height as they trend westwards, although 

 many of the peaks and plateaux have a higher elevation than has 

 Amarkantak. The highest peak is Dhupgarh, 4,500 feet, a thou- 

 sand higher than the Pachmarhi plateau and sanitarium, which it 

 overlooks. The hills go away in two ranges, between which there 

 is a table land, and on which are situated the districts of Balaghat, 

 Seoni, Chindwara, and Betul. The table land is broken up and diver- 

 sified by numerous ranges and peaks, and valleys of various extent, 

 height and depth, each range bearing a local name. The table- 

 land closes in on the west, and the two main ranges run north 

 and south of the Tapti River, joining the Bajpipla Hills in 

 Khandesh, and another tract of hilly country, till the Western Ghats 

 are reached. North of the Satpura Hills lies the plain of the 

 Narbada Valley, and north of this again there is a plateau on which 

 are situated the districts of Damoh and Saugor, the eastern scarp 

 of which is bounded by the Bhanrer and Kaimur hills, both 

 offshoots of the Vindhyan range. South of the Satpuras lie the 

 plains of Nagpur and Chhattisgarh, and to the east of Chhattisgarh 

 is the plain of Sambalpur. Chhattisgarh and Sambalpur are drained 

 by the Mahanadi. South of the Nagpur plains flows the Godaveri. 

 Both these rivers flow to the east and empty themselves into the Bay 

 of Bengal, while the Tapti and Narbada flow to the west into the Ara- 

 bian Sea. There are several other large rivers in the Provinces, all 

 tributaries of the four great rivers already mentioned. To the north 

 of the Chhattisgarh and Sambalpur plains there are ranges of hills, 

 a continuation of the Satpuras, but of lower elevation, covered for 

 the most part with dense jungle, and south of these two plains lie 

 the forest-clad hills of Jeypore and Bastar, the latter country 

 extending away to the Godavery, south of the Nagpur plain, where 

 there is another large tract of forest country. 



