Chap. 3.] w. blanfoud, western tndia. 23 



Khandeish on the Taptee itself, below the junction of the Poorna. Both 

 of these, though the first is far broader in proportion to its length than 

 the Nerbudda plains^ are remarkably similar in their general features. 



Height of plains above ^^^ *^^^^® P^'^^^^ approximate to the same general 



^^^®^^^' height above the sea, f i^;., about 1,000 feet; those 



further up the rivers being, of course, higher than those lower down, but 

 still the difference is small compared with what takes place below them. 

 Thus the height of the great Nerbudda plain is about 1,300 feet above 

 Nursiugpoor, and thence falls to 950 feet near Hurda; the lower plain 

 near Mundlaisur is about 700 feet above the sea. The Berar plain is 

 from 800 to 900 feet, the Khandeish plain, at its upper portion, about 

 700 to 750. The alluvial flats on the Wurda river, above Kowta, are 

 similarly very nearly 900 feet above the sea, and the plain in the valleys 

 of the Wein Gunga and its tributaries near Nagpoor are of the same 

 height.* 



The Berar and Khandeish plains join by a narrow neck, and there 



is but a slight fall in the river between them, 

 River gorges. 



• but from all other plains the rivers emerge 



through rocky gorges in which the fall is great. This is the case with 



the Taptee, through the trap hills of Rajpeepla, below Kookurmoonda, 



and with the Nerbudda below Hoshungabad, through the metamorj)hic 



and Vindhvan rocks of the Dhar forest, and ao-ain 

 HurinPal. . 



below Burwanee at the Hurin Pal, through the 

 traps of the Burwanee and Mutwar hills. 



All of these great plains, also, are surrounded, more or less com- 

 pletely, by mural escarpments, the most northern 

 Mural scarps. 



and southern of which are the edges of the table 



lands already mentioned. There are some very pecuhar features con- 

 nected with these escarpments. Before quitting* the subject of the 

 physical geography of the Nerbudda and Taptee valleys, it will be well 



* My data are cliiefly the Railway Sections. 



( 185 ) * 



