CHAPTER XXI 



THE BORI FOREST 



In October, 1870, after the rains were over, the forest 

 daftar (office) and camp moved out to the district. It 

 was proposed to hand over the plateau of Pachmari to 

 the military for the purpose of a sanatorium for troops. 

 The timber depot at Bagra was the site of our first camp. 

 Tents were pitched under some giant mango and tamarind 

 trees on the bank of the river Tawa, a large tributary of 

 the Nerbudda. Here was a strange sight. The recently 

 built railway bridge, about 100 yards long, had during the 

 rains been entirely swept away by the heavy floods which 

 came down from the Satpuras. Stone piers, girders, and 

 aU were gone, and nothing remained but the rails and 

 sleepers, hanging together in the air by the fish-plates in 

 a graceful curve some 50 feet above the river, which was 

 now a placid, clear stream winding and gurgling over 

 smooth rocks. The traffic was conducted on a deviation, 

 which ran down into the bed of the river and up again the 

 other side. There are always many such catastrophes 

 on a new line in India during the first and second rainy 

 seasons. 



Bagra is a lovely spot, with its huge shady trees. The 

 park-like plain with cultivation mixed with forest, and 

 the gorge of the river, on one side ; on the south a rocky, 

 tree-clad valley, and the ridges and ranges of the Satpuras 



