'{■ PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF BOMBA\ , 379 



from the Central mass of the Deccau trap ; and every one of them 

 between Mahuli and the Raigarh group is divided from the gnats 

 proper by a deep gap. 



Prom the hot springs of the Tansa, behind Tungar, behind M i- 

 fcheran, behind Mira Dongar and Sagargarh, a man could drive a 

 bullock cart to the hot springs of the Savitri at So neai* Mahad), 

 passing those of the Amba, at Inhere, on the way. He would not 

 have to cross any pass 500 feet high. If he was ambitious enough 

 to take a still more eastern line behind Surgarh, he would probably 

 leave the wreck of his cart on the road ; but he would not require 

 climb 600 feet at any point. 



It is an unfortunate peculiarity of our topographical surveyors 

 that, although they give us the exact height of all the important peaks, 

 and of a great many very unimportant ones, they seem never to 

 think the height of a pass worth measuring. Most of those, whose 

 height is given in their maps, have been measured by the District 

 Engineers, and even the information obtainable from them has not 

 always been utilized. Where they have not been, we are left to 

 mere conjecture, or to resurvey. I have not myself found time to 

 pass through the gap between the Surgarh hills and the main wall 

 of the ghats ; but from the outside it appears to be quite as deep as 

 the Umbre pass between the Pen hills and the Khandala ghats, 

 which is a natural cart-road leading from the Amba Valley to 

 Campoolee. 



The next great gap to the southward is that between the Raigarh 

 group of true spurs and the Janjira plateau, and it has a tidal creek 

 through the middle of it. All these ranges and passes lie more or 

 less north and south, and so naturally do the river courses and 

 valleys. And every here and there, throughout the region wherever 

 the basalt is exposed, you come on queer long straight cracks in the 

 rocky mass, still lying in the same direction inland ; these are 

 naturally appropriated by the drainage water, which has in the 

 course of ages modified them considerably. On the coast they form 

 channels through the reefs, and landing places, where these would, 

 if entire, forbid all landing. 



As far as I am aware the whole system is confined to a very 

 limited area, of which Bombay Harbour is nearly the centre, and 

 50 



