CHAPTER IX. 



THE SAL forests. 



Above Mandla, the valley of the Narbada opens out 

 into a wide upland country, the main river, bet\Yeen 

 this and Jubbulpiir, joined by few and unimportant 

 tributaries, here radiating like the fingers of a hand, 

 and drainino; the rainfall of an extensive trianofular 

 j)lateau, known as the Mandla district. These con- 

 verging valleys rise in elevation towards the south, 

 where they terminate in a transverse range of hills, 

 which sends down spurs between them, subdividing 

 the drainage. The valleys themselves also suc- 

 cessively rise in general elevation, by a step-like 

 formation from west to east. Furthest to the west, 

 that of the Banjar river possesses a general height of 

 about 2,000 feet; next is that drained by the Halon 

 and the Phen at about 2,300 ; still further to the east 

 the basin of the Khorm^r has risen to about 2,800 feet ; 

 and furthest east of all is the plateau of Amarkantak, the 

 chief source of the Narbada, which attains a general 

 altitude of about 3,300 feet, with smaller flat-topped 

 elevations reaching to 4,000 feet above the sea. The 

 hilly range which runs along the southern border of 

 the district is called the Mykat, and overlooks, in a 

 steep descent to the southward, a flat low-lying country 

 called Chattisgarh, or " the land of thirty-six forts." 



