64 Remarks on the Country between [Feb. 



men, who often arrive with a string of upwards of five hundred head of 

 cattle, and after loading, depart for Mhow, Aseergurh, Boorhanpoor, 

 Sagur, %c. The country all around is one uninterrupted flat, teeming 

 ■with cultivation, with the exception of a short patch of praus jungle, 

 round Bhugwara, and the same also about Kahureea. Gram, wheat, 

 peas, the different kinds of dais, bajra, and the jowar form the chief culti- 

 vation : khets of sugar-cane (the thin white species) and cotton are 

 occasionally met with. The herds of buffaloes and cows are also very 

 large and numerous, while their subsistence is both easy and abundant. 



The strata of the country is a black soil, with the exception of some 

 few parts through jungle, where the road led over a gravel bed. 



From Pugdar (a Gosain's village) to the Moorun nuddee, a thick low 

 jungle of praus and underwood, with occasional stunted trees, and 

 several byr bushes extends, through which the narrow and uneven 

 road leads ; — a gravel soil is again met with. Doura-ghat is the site 

 only of a village that once was. The Moorun is a hill torrent, varying 

 from 80 to 120 yards in width : at the ford from bank to bank, it is 

 about 150 yards : its channel is obstructed in several parts by ledges 

 of rock, which in some places present a bluish black, and in others 

 again a whitish tinge ; — not being a geologist I cannot take upon me to 

 say the nature of it, but I strongly conclude it to be limestone. At the 

 ford it was massive, and laid bare in the bed of the torrent. The de- 

 scent from the jungle into the Moorun is trifling and gradual, (natu- 

 rally) ; but the ascent on the opposite side up to the small hamlet of 

 Umlara, which stands on a high bank of sandy soil (cachdr), is very 

 steep. After we left Seonee, the long range of tree-covered hills, which 

 bounds the prospect to the south, as well as the S. E. became more 

 clearly defined, and we were approximating them fast each stage. 



The Vindhya range, which skirts the northern bank of the Nerbudda, 

 is no longer visible, and the eye has one uninterrupted range to the 

 N. and also to the W., over an extensive plain, bounded only by the 

 horizon. The whole of this level tract is one sheet of cultivation, stud- 

 ded, as it were, with occasional topes of mango trees. 



Bhadoogaon is a small town, or rather a large village, of which in 

 1824, a man named Reka Set was the malgoozar. It is situated 

 on the western bank of the Gunjal river, which flows at the ford in a 

 shallow rippling current over a pebbly bed, but deepens considerably a 

 short distance beyond the town. The north part of Bhadoogaon is 

 situated on a high bank, overhanging the stream. To the S. E. is a 

 dense jungle, which stretches for some way towards the hills. 



From Bhadoogaon to Rhitgaon, the country is open generally speak- 

 ing ; here and there a small patch of praus is met with on either side of 



