172 ' POOTE : SOUTH MAIIRATTA COUNTRY. 



including the Samangarli in the south-east corner of the Kolhapur 

 territory. West of the Samang-arh hill, and of a line drawn thence 

 southward to Belgauro, the hills become better clothed and ipso 

 facto more ' and more picturesque as the edge of the ghats is ap- 

 proached. 



The scenery at the edge of the ghats truly deserves to be de- 

 At the edge of the scribed as generally very fine and often gi'and 

 great scarp. ^^^ ^.g^jj^ beautiful. 



The scenery on the upper slopes and scarps is very similar to that 

 seen on the Bor and Thall ghats and familiar to very many, but it 

 changes further down the sides of the hills, where the underlying older 

 rocks are reached. Even in the ghits the forests have been wofully 

 thinned by the unhappy system of cultivation pursued by the hill people 

 and known as the Kumari* system. 



The annexed sketch, Plate VII, gives a correct idea of a very typical 

 piece of scenery in the Kolhapur- Belgaum ghats. It represents the 

 view south-south-east from a high point south-east of Patgaon, towards 

 the great spur rising south of the Amboli gh^ts. The ghat is hidden 

 behind the Mahadeogarh spur, along which runs the great scarp. The 

 celebrated hill fort of Manohargarh and the east end of Mansantoshgarh 

 show to the left of the picture. 



The principal varieties of trap met with in the southern part of 



the Deccan area are basalt, amygdaloid trap. 

 Varieties of trap. 



vesicular trap, and clayey trap, which with some 



few intertrappean sedimentary beds and numerous highly ferruginous 



clayey beds (so-called laterite) make up the great mass of the trap-flows. 



By far the commonest variety is the basalt with its compact and 

 vesicular varieties. In it also must be included the extensive spreads 



* In pursuing the Kumari system of cultivation, the natives clear a piece of forest 

 land, cultivate it for two or three seasons, then abandon it and take up a fresh piece of 

 forest land, to be used and abandoned again in its turn. 



( 172 ) 



