Vili INTRODUCTION. 
portion of the inhabitants. (Vide Mr. G. A. Prinsep’s Work on Saugur Island.) These 
tremendous storms were repeated in October 1832 and in May 1833, the last more 
severe than any of the former, when ships were left stranded on dry land, the whole 
country covered with water, and the wretched inhabitants, who had escaped drowning, 
were in danger of dying not only of hunger, but excessive thirst. (Vide Calcutta Courier, 
25th May 1833.) The tract extending between the sea and mountains in Orissa or 
Cuttack, is a plain level country, undisturbed by a single elevation; near the sea-shore, 
marshy and woody; having much resemblance to the sunderbuns (or Delta of the Ganges) 
in its swamps and marshes, innumerable winding streams, dense jungles, and noxious 
vapours. The Chilka lake on this coast, is supposed to have been formed by an inun- 
dation of the sea. 
The third great range of Indian mountains is the Vindyha or Central Zone: of this it 
is difficult to assign the length, breadth, or thickness, as the geography of Central India 
is but imperfectly known. But if the map of India be examined, it will be observed, 
that the Ganges and Jumna, after their junction at Allahabad, take an easterly course, 
though they had previously descended in a south-easterly direction. This deflection is 
caused by the extension of the Sandstone-hills to Mirzapore and Chunar, and maintained 
by the projection of the central mass at Monghir and Rajmahl. From this it crosses the 
whole continent of India, in its broadest part from east to west, terminating in the 
mountainous country of Guzerat. By Mr. Calder it has been considered as uniting 
“the northern extremities of the two great ranges already described, which terminate 
nearly in the same parallel of latitude, forming as it were the base of the triangle that 
elevates the table-land of the Peninsula. This range has numerous divisions, and a 
multitude of names, almost every district giving a change of denomination: but to the 
eye of the geologist, who considers things on an extended scale, there is a parallelism 
in the different parts, and a general connection and dependence on the central range; 
the substrata prove this fact, for in every case they preserve that parallelism.” The 
Chandore and Gawilgurh ranges, running east and west between 20° and 21° of latitude, 
form the separation between the streams which flow towards the Bay of Bengal, and 
those which flow towards the Gulf of Cambay. They are elevated about three 
thousand feet, and the descent from both is rapid on the north towards the Poorna and 
Tapty rivers. The Satpoora range divides the latter river from the Nerbuddah, both 
flowing in a parallel direction towards the west. ‘On the north of the Nerbuddah, the 
Mandoo or proper Vindhya range rises abruptly, and supports the elevated table-land of 
Malwa, which is elevated about two thousand feet in the southern parts, declining 
gradually towards the north. Shaizghur, the highest point of the range, is said to be 
elevated two thousand six hundred and twenty-eight feet above the sea; but, though 
- Jittle explored, the high country around Omerkuntuc, in lat. 28° and long. 82°, must be 
supposed to be the most elevated tract of country, as such rivers as the Nerbuddah and 
Sone flow from it, the one to the west, and the other to the east, and others to the south. 
Numerous ramifications being given off from this central range, the whole of the country 
to 
