370 



THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTEAL INDIA. 



The elevated cradle of the infant Narbada, thus 

 described, contains within its outer circle of hills an 

 area of not less than 7,000 square miles ; much of it, of 

 course, of a broken and unculturable character, but 

 comprising also in the valleys much of what may 

 properly be called virgin soil of the finest quality. The 



bAL lOKliblb 1^ THE HALUJs \ALLL1. 



Mykat range, and the radiating spurs which separate 

 the plateau, are mostly clothed with forests of the sal 

 tree, which, here as elsewhere, almost monopolises 

 the parts where it grows. The saj alone grows in any 

 quantity along with it. Some of the hills are covered 

 with the ordinary species of forest trees of other parts ; 

 the species of vegetation appearing, as I have said 

 before, to depend much on the geological formation. 



