Lieut.-Colonel Sykes on a portion of Dukhun. 41 1 



Ghats. 



The Dukhun rises^ by a succession of terraces or steps, very abruptly from 

 the Konkun *. Its valleys and table-lands have a mean elevation above the sea 

 of about 1800 feet. The Konkun is a long strip of land from thirty to fifty miles 

 in breadth, lying between the Ghats and the sea; the mean elevation of this 

 strip is less than 100 feet ; but it is bristled with isolated hills, or short ranges, 

 some of which attain an elevation equalling that of the Ghats. Numerous 

 shoulders or salient angles are thrown out from the Ghats from the western or 

 Konkun side, and by means of these the ascent to Dukhun is effected ; with 

 what difficulty, will be understood when I state that the military road of commu- 

 nication between Bombay and Poona, up the Bore Ghat, rises nearly 600 feet 

 in a mile. The western portion of my tract along the crest of the Ghats is ex- 

 ceedingly strong : spurs of different lengths extend from the main range to the 

 eastward and south-east, leaving many narrow tortuous valleys between them, 

 some of which have the character of gigantic cracks or fissures ; other valleys, 

 although occurring less frequently, when looked at from the neighbouring 

 ranges, appear as flat and smooth as a billiard-table, even to the crest of the 

 Ghats, but when traversed are found to be cut up by numerous narrow and 

 deep ravines f. Stupendous scarps, fearful chasms, numerous waterfalls, dense 

 forests, and perennial verdure, complete the majesty and romantic interest of 

 the vicinity of the Ghats. As the spurs extend to the east and south-east they 

 diminish in height, until they disappear on approaching the open plains in 

 my eastern limits, between the Beema and Seena rivers. The area of the 

 table-land on their summit often exceeds that of the valley between them : 

 such is the case with the spur bordering the left bank of the Beema river for 

 forty miles from its source, occupying, in fact, the whole country between the 

 sources of the Beema and Goreh rivers. The spurs are rarely tabular for 

 their whole length, but narrow occasionally into ridges capped with compact 

 basalt, and subsequently expand into extensive table-lands. The spur ori- 

 ginating in the hill fort of Hurreechundurghur affords a good example. The 

 fort is about eighteen miles in circumference : on the east it presents a salient 



mountains, extending for 165 miles along the left bank of the Tapty river, from its source to the 

 city of Boorhanpoor, he describes the principal part of the range as formed of "compact basalt 

 " very much resembling that of the Giant's Causeway. It is found columnar in many places, and 

 " at Gawelghur it appears stratified ; the summits of several ravines presenting a continued stratum 

 " of many thousand yards in length." — Physical Class of the Asiatic Researches, p. 189. 



* See Plate XXVIII. t The valley of the Malsej Ghat, for instance. 



VOL. IV. SECOND SERIES. 3 H 



