JOURNAL 



ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



Part II— PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 

 No. I.— 1865. 



Notes of a toior made in 1863-64 in the Tributary Mehals under the 

 Commissioner of Chota-Nagpore, Bonai, Gangpore, Odeypore and 

 Sirgooja. — By Lt.-Col. T. Dalton. 



[Eeceived 2nd September, 1864.] 

 Bonai is a small hilly district lying very snugly isolated from all 

 civilization, between Sarundah the wildest part of Singbhoom and the 

 Tributary Mehals of Keonjhur, Bamra, and G-angpore. It is 58 miles 

 in greatest length from east to west and 37 miles in greatest breadth 

 from north to south, with an area of 1,297 square miles. It is for 

 the most part a mass of uninhabited hills, only y-^th of the whole 

 being under cultivation, but about its centre, on both banks of the 

 Brahmini river, which bisects it, there is a beautiful valley containing 

 the sites of upwards of twenty good, and for the most part cotermin- 

 ous villages, the houses well sheltered by very ancient mango and 

 tamarind trees, with a due proportion of graceful palms. The tal and 

 date appear to grow very luxuriantly in the- valley, and sugar-cane 

 thrives there. Many of the villages lie close to the river and their 

 luxuriant groves meet and form long undulating lines of high and 

 well- wooded bank. On all sides, at the distance of a few miles, are 

 hills, some nearly three thousand feet above the level of the valley, 

 and thus a very pleasing and varied landscape is disclosed at every 

 turn of the broad and rapid rock-brqken stream. 

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