TOFOGEAFHY. 



The extreme west, occupied by the hills of Naga 

 Untari and other zemiDdari estates, is fairly covered with a 

 poor forest, from which all large timber has been removed, 

 and is interspersed with villages. Similar jangle-clad hills 

 also occur in the east of ■ the district, where they join a 

 confused mas3 lying in the west of Hazaribagh. From 

 them tributaries of the Amanat river flow westwards. The 

 high land in the extreme south-east of Palamau, in 

 parganah Ton, is the watershed of the Amanat (which 

 joins the Koil above Daltonganj) and the Danmcia. It 

 connects the Hazaribagh plateau with that of Ranch!. The 

 forest on this watershed is not reserved. Below the ghats 

 of the Palamau plateau in the North- West, is a small area near 

 the Sone on a level with the Gay a plain. 



The Santal Pargaiiahs district ie an oblong tract 

 lying in a bend south and west of the Ganges. The south- 

 west and western portion in continuation of the north-east 

 of . Hazaribagh is of low elevation, but generally undulating 

 and with numerous detached hills and small hill ranges. 

 The eastern half is chieBy occupied by the long north and 

 ,jouth range of the Rajmehal Hills, which leave, however, a 

 low alluvial highly-cultivated tract between them and the 

 Ganges on the east The highest points of this range are 

 only about 1,500 ft. and nowhere exceed 2,000 ft. ; they are 

 usually flat-topped. These hills must once have been covered 

 with dense forest, but all the large timber was destroyed in 

 the construction of the East Indian railway about 1857, and 

 although a part was subsequently reserved under the Forest 

 Act, control by the Forest Department has been again mostly 

 withdrawn. Much of the area is jhnmed or cultivated, and 

 the greater portion of the remainder reduced to a state of 

 scrub. The result of the denudation is that most of the 

 streams become nearly dry early in the dry season, while they 

 are violent torrents in the rains, only fordable with danger. The 

 effects of excessive grazing and other destructive agencies is 

 well seen about Barhait, where the Sal trees are found with 



