THE MAHADEO HILLS. 97 



peculiar water action, worn into the semblance of 

 gigantic matted locks of hair ; while deep below the 

 floor of the cavern, in the bowels of the rock, is heard 

 the labouring of imprisoned waters shaking the cave. 

 It is small wonder that such a natural marvel as this 

 should be a chosen dwelling-place for the god to whom 

 all these mountains are sacred, and that it forms one of 

 the most holy and indispensable points in the circuit 

 which the devout pilgrim must perform. 



The place has also a slight historical interest. 

 Durinsj the last of our struo^sjles with the Marathas, 

 Appa Saheb Bhonsla, Raja of Nagpur, on his way to an 

 exile justly earned by repeated acts of treachery, escaped 

 and fled to the fastnesses of the Mahadeo hills ; and it 

 was in this secluded ravine, if tradition speaks the 

 truth, that he was concealed by the fidelity of his 

 aboriginal subjects till he finally made liis escape, while 

 detachments of British troops were hunting for him in 

 every other nook and recess in the mountains. 



Beyond the Jambo-Dwip, or " great ravine " as we 

 called it, and between it and the valley of the 

 Sonbhadra, lies another group of wild hills, a little 

 lower than the Puchmurree block in elevation, and with 

 few level plateaux of any extent. One or two poor 

 hamlets of Korkiis occupy its most sheltered nooks ; 

 but the soil is everywhere extremely thin, and there is 

 a great absence of water in this section of the Mahadeo 

 range, so that it is almost uninhabited. The Sonbhadra 

 valley itself can only be entered Vvdiere it leaves the 

 southern face of the hills, by a difficult pathway along 

 the edges of the rapid stream ; but the scene is well 

 deserving of the scramble of eight or ten miles on foot 

 by which it is reached. It is utterly untenanted even 



