NERBUDDA DISTRICT. 117 



shall have been described. It will nevertheless be convenient, by way 



of introduction, very briefly to refer to some of the principal and more 



marked of these physical features. 



Of these the great rock escarpment of the Vindhyan hills running 



m . „. ,, alone? the north side of the valley is unquestion- 



The Vindhyan escarp- a j i 



ment * ably the most striking. 



This range of flat-topped cliffs is marked by great uniformity of 

 outline averaging from 300 to 400 feet above the level of the valley, 

 in rare cases rising to 800. It is however incorrect to speak of 

 this as a range of hills. Seen from the south it presents an almost 

 uninterrupted series of headlands with projecting promontories and re- 

 ceding bays, like a weather-beaten coast line ; but these form the 

 abrupt termination of a table land and are not an independent range 

 of hills. It would be difficult to point out a finer example of cliffs once 

 formed by the denuding action of shore-waves, but now far inland, than 

 is exhibited along this range. From the summit of these cliffs however 

 there is no descent to the north, corresponding to their southern declivi- 

 ty : on the contrary, the plateau is found, to stretch away in this direction 

 in gentle undulations. The northward slope, though slight, commences 

 from the very edge of the escarpment, and a reference to the map will 

 show that the Betwa, the Dessaun and the Sonar Rivers have their origin 

 in places overhanging the valley of the Nerbudda. In one or two 

 localities where the latter river in its winding course flows close to the 

 north side of its valley, the southern limits of the drainage area of the 

 Ganges may there be seen to reach to within little more than a mile of 

 the actual main stream of the Nerbudda. 



On the south side of the valley, the hills present a more broken and 



The Mahadeva escarp- less re S uIar outline than on the north. Instead 

 ment# of an uniform range of escarpment like that of the 



Vindhyan hills, we here have irregular groups of hills of different heights 

 and different forms of contours, and which are composed of different rock. 



