108 MALLETj VINDHtAN SEKIEg. 



Beehur as an example^ it is seen from the twigs and straws left in the 

 branches of the trees near the bank, that in the rains the water ffoes 

 over the edge several yards deep, and with a breadth of several hundred 

 feet.* Such a mass charged with detritus, coarse and fine, and with a 

 clear fall of 360 feet, cannot but be possessed of great erosive power. The 

 quantity of water in some, and the fall in other rivers, is even greater. 



The minor gorges have often no permanent waterfall at the head, 

 but the latter is by no means essential to their formation, although when 

 a powerful stream falls from above, the gorge will be much larger. In 

 almost every case, however, there is a dry channel of greater or less 

 length above the head, which becomes filled after rain. Sometimes the 

 heads of two gorges are close to each other, with a mere neck of table- 

 land between ; the great Deccan road passes along one of these shortly 

 after reaching the top of Kuttra ghat. Supposing the gorges marine, 

 there is no explanation of these necks except that in every instance the 

 denuding action chanced to cease just before the neck was cut through. 

 But assuming them sub-aerial, there is the very obvious reason that, as 

 the heads of the two gorges gradually approached each other, the 

 lengths of the streams above would become shorter and shorter, and 

 consequently their drainage and eroding power less and less, until, when 

 the intervening rock became very narrow, the action would be little more 

 than pluvial. 



Purely pluvial action on the same extent of surface would, of course, be 

 much less powerful, but examples of what it can effect in time are frequent 

 amongst the Vindhyans. Thus at Ponree, three mUes south of Myhere, 

 there is a pointed hill rising 450 feet in height above the plain, formed 

 entirely of horizontal Sirboo shales. The base of the upper sandstone is 

 here 600 feet above the same level, so that 150 feet of shales have been 

 removed, but still many moderate sized pieces of sandstone remain on 

 the hill. Any violent action like that of waves would at once remove 



* At Rewah there is a fall of twenty feet, which is superficially obliterated after a 

 heavy fall of rain from the body of water passing down. 



( 108 ) 



