Z'l W. BLAXFOKD, WE.STIiRN INDIA. [PaIIT I. 



beds of the table land have, in former times, been cut away by the sea,"^ 

 as is attested by the old range of cliffs now known as the Western 

 Ghdts. Further to the westward, along che present coast, the traps 

 dip towards the sea, and higher rocks of tertiary age commence to 

 appear near Surat at a low level. To the north-west of Chota Oodipoor 

 and Baroda, the volcanic rocks have been entirely removed by denu- 

 dation, and the country is hilly and irregular, but being of a 

 lower general elevation, the valleys are less deep than in the trap 

 area. 



The slope of the table land is to the eastward ; the whole drainage 



of the Malwa and Deccan ■ plateaus without ex- 



Direction of water- ^ 



slieds. ception running to the Bay of Bengal. But, from 



out of the heart of the plateau, valleys are cut by the Taptee and 



Nerbudda, two rivers which rank amongst the great streams of the 



Peninsula, and which flow in the opposite direction, viz., to the west. 



From the very verge of the cliffs which overhang the valleys of these 



rivers, both to the north in Malwa, and to the south in the Deccan, 



streams run to the Ganges or to the Godaveiy. 



This is not the only peculiarity of the Taptee and Nerbudda valleys. 



Their most remarkable feature, perhaps, is the 

 Alluvial plains in Ner- 

 l)udcla and Taptee val- existence of the great alluvial plains which 



Icvs, 



they traverse, and from which they emerge by 

 rocky gorges. The great and fertile plain of the Nerbudda, one of the 

 richest agricultural tracts in India, extends from Jubbulpoor to beyond 

 Hoshungabad, and has already been described by Mr. J. G. Medlicott and 

 Mr. Theobald in the 2nd Volume of these Memoirs. A smaller and 

 less well marked plain, on which the alluvial deposit is thinner and less 

 uniformly spread, extends from Burwai to the neighbourhood of Burwa- 

 nee. In the Taptee valley there are two great alluvial plains, that of 

 Berar upon the Poorna, the principal tributary of the Taptee, and that of 



* This subject will be more fully discussed fm'tlier on under the head of denudation. 



( isi. ) 



