CHAPTER Vr. 



THE TEAK REGION. 



On the 28th of March, having seen our forest lodge 

 in a fair way to completion, I left the Puchmnrree 

 plateau, and entered on the first of many long journeys 

 of exploration among the forests of the Seoni, Chind- 

 wdra, and Betiil districts. I have already described 

 these as being situated on the great central table-land 

 of this mountain range, from the centre of which juts 

 up the still higher formation called the Mahadeo (or 

 Puchmurree) group. The general elevation of the table- 

 land is about 2,000 feet above the sea; but this general 

 level is broken by numerous minor projections, besides 

 the great one of the Mahadeo range, which generally 

 exhibit the peculiar flat-topped outline of hills of the 

 trap formation.* The overflow of basalt has indeed 

 been nearly universal over all this vast region, the 

 great Mahadeo sandstone block, and a few isolated 

 peaks of granite, known at once by their sharp and 

 splintered peaks, being the only notable breaks in the 



* Many of these isolated hills, being flat-topped and surmounted 

 by precipitous scarps, and frequently furnished with depressions in 

 which rain-water collects, are natural fortresses of an almost impreg- 

 nable strength ; and, with the addition of some rude masonry works, 

 were generally occupied for this purpose by the hill Chiefs in former 

 times. 



p -2 



