liieut.-CoIonel Sykes on a portion of Dukhun. 4]s 



Vale of the Under.— The valley of the Under river, north-west of Poona, presents a perfect 

 contrast to the last. It is level for twenty miles, running east and west to the very ed-e of the 

 Ghats ; and a person can stand at the head of the valley upon the brink of a scarp rising almost 

 from the Konkun. Here, at the source of the river, it is nearly six miles wide. The river Under 

 runs down the valley 150 feet below the level of the cultivated lands. 



Vale of the Baum — The neighbouring valley of the Baum river, unlike that of the Under, 

 originates about seven miles from the crest of the Ghats, at a spot where the mountain masses 

 separate into two spurs. Hence it continues level for fourteen miles, gradually widening east- 

 ward. The Baum river, like the Under, runs at a level of 150 feet below the cultivated lands ; 

 these lands, in fact, being upon one terrace, the river upon a second and lower terrace. 



Vale of the Beevia.—The next valley on the north is that of the Beema river. The river rises 

 on the elevated table-land above the Ghats, at 3090 feet, and within the first few miles it tumbles 

 over several terraces. The valley, for eighteen miles, is occasionally as narrow as that of the 

 Mota river. 



Vale of the Goreh. — Next on the north occurs the valley of the Goreh river, which, from the 

 source of the river to Munchur, (twenty-nine miles,) is exceedingly narrow and tortuous. Here 

 it expands into the broad horizontal plain of Kowta, ten miles wide. 



Vale of the Malsej Ghat. — In conclusion, as a contrast to the first part of the Goreh valley, I 

 must mention the valley of the Malsej Ghat, on the south of the Dukhun-base of the fort of Hur- 

 reechundurghur. It is several miles wide, and literally as level, even to the brink of the Ghats, 

 as if smoothed by art. Many of the valleys of the Ghats, particularly that of the Mool river, from 

 the continued scarped character of the marginal mountains, and the flatness of the bottom for miles 

 in extent, look like fosses to a Titan's fortress. 



If all these valleys be valleys of excavation^ the present rivers could scarcely 

 produce such, were we to suppose their powers of attrition in operation from 

 the origin of things even to the end of time ! 



Those of a fissure-like character might have resulted from the upheaving of 

 the beds of trap from below the sea, and the consequent probable fracture of 

 the surface ; but the same explanation will not apply to those valleys associated 

 with the preceding, broad, flat, and margined by scarped mountains, which 

 valleys are as wide at their origin at the crest of the Ghats, and at the sources 

 of the rivers which run through them, as in any part of their length. 



Terraces. 

 As the rise from the Konkun to the Dukhun is by terraces, so the declination 

 of the country eastward from the Ghats is by terraces ; but these occur at 

 much longer intervals, are much lower, particularly in the eastern parts, and 

 escape the eye of the casual observer. In the neighbourhood of Munchur, on 

 the Goreh river, there are five terraces rising above each other from the east 

 to the west, so distinctly marked, that the parallelism of their planes, to each 

 other and to the horizon, gives them the appearance of being artificial. An 

 artificial character also pervades the form of many insulated hills : some of 

 which viewed laterally, appear to have an extensive table-land on the summit, 



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