THE 



HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTORY, 



People commonly talk of the " hills " aud the " plains " 

 of India, meaning by the former the great Himalayan 

 range, and by the latter all the rest of the country. 

 The mightiest mountains of the earth are called nothing 

 more than " hills ; " and popular geography has no name 

 for the numerous excrescences of mother earth which 

 intersect the so-called region of "plains." A range 

 called the Nilgherries, in the south of the peninsula, 

 approaching 9,000 feet in altitude, is known to a few 

 beyond the limits of India as a resort of invalids, and a 

 nursery for cinchonas ; but of lesser ranges than this, 

 which would still be called mountains in any other 

 country, the mass of " ordinary readers " has no 

 cognizance. 



Much of this has reallv been owinsf to the unex- 

 plored and undescribed condition of such regions ; but 

 something also to the overwhelming prominence of the 

 great northern range, which rivets the attention of 

 teachers of geography and their pupils, and also, from 

 the exigencies of the art of chartography, renders it 



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