THE TEAK EEGION. 205 



Vast areas, again, do not produce, and do not seem to be 

 capable of producing, any species but such as are, from the soft- 

 ness of their timber, almost useless to the carpenter. A typical 

 example of such a tract is found in the upper valley of the Tapti 

 river, a river which forms so good an example of the streams of 

 this region as to be worthy of some description. Kising among 

 the western spurs of the Mahadeo range, it flows for a short 

 distance over the level plateau of the Betul district, in a 

 shallow channel, which, in the hot season, forms a chain of 

 silent pools fringed by great Kowa trees and by the thick green 

 cover of Jaman and Karonda, in which tigers delight to dwell. 

 The surrounding country in this part of its course is partially 

 cleared and cultivated with rice and sugar-cane. Presently, 

 however, it commences its descent towards the level of the 

 lower plains, plunging into a glen riven through the basalt, 

 and assumes the character of a mountain torrent. Here and 

 there it widens out into little bays of level valley land ; but is 

 henceforth, for a hundred miles or so, generally shut in be- 

 tween high banks rising from the edge of its channel. Through 

 these the rapid drainage of the higher hills has cut innumer- 

 able narrow channels down to the level of its bed, which 

 spread out above into an interminable series of rocky gullies, 

 seaming in every direction a long succession of rolling basaltic 

 waves. The surface of these tracts has been weathered in 

 places into a penurious soil, bearing multitudes of round black 

 boulders of trap, ranging in size from an egg to a small house, 

 and salted over with small white agate splinters, both 

 apparently eliminated from the mother rock in the process 

 of decomposition. This surface is covered with a growth 

 of coarse grass, varying according to the depth of the 

 soil from a few inches to several feet in height, and is 

 studded with small trees, of which ninety-nine in every 



