AN EXPLORATION IN THE FAR EAST. 397 



spring at Amarkantak and many places along its course, are 

 places of great sanctity to pilgrims from all parts of India ; 

 and the help of the railway, which is by no means scorned by 

 the devout Hindu (who likes to " boil his peas"), bids fair to 

 realize in some degree the prophecy of the Purdn^s. A little 

 to the north of the source of the Narbada" rises the JohilM, a 

 stream which shortly joins the Sone, also born in these hills, 

 and flows north into the Ganges ; while, still only a few steps 

 from these, another little stream, the Arpd,, bubbles forth, and 

 shortly tumbles over the sheer cliff to the south, and mingles 

 with the great M&Mnadi, which drains the plains of Chattis'- 

 garh into the Bay of Bengal. From this height of 4,000 feet 

 the eye embraces a view of three-fourths of a circle, uninter- 

 rupted by anything but the blue haze of distance which limits 

 the vision. Far below to the south, lying like a chessboard, 

 is the open cultivated plain of Chattis garh, stretching out to 

 the uttermost range of vision. To the east and north, 2,000 

 feet below, appears a flat sea of greenery, broken here and 

 there by an isolated peak that appears to reach the level of the 

 observer. In the faint distance beyond rises another wall of 

 rock, visible only on a clear day as a faint violet-coloured 

 shade across the sky. The green plain is a vast forest of sal, 

 unbroken by tillage, and scarcely inhabited by man, and the 

 rocky rampart beyond is the buttress of another table-land 

 called Sirguj&, the land of the K61 aborigines, and beyond the 

 limits of our province. My mission for the succeeding six 

 months was to explore this vast region of sal forest, lying to 

 the north and east of Amarkantak, and stretching far beyond 

 and to the south of the plain of Chattis'garh, in the semi-inde- 

 pendent country called the Qarhj^t States. 



Over all this country roams the wild buffalo, and in the 

 forests north and east of Amarkantak were then found large 



