1865.] Notes of a tour in the Tributary Mehals. 21 



classed amongst the most degraded of the people, (and in Gangpore 

 not held in much higher estimation,) holding a high position in 

 Oodeypore. 



I have insensibly glided into Oodeypore. In no published map are 

 the boundaries of that district defined. It has to the north the great 

 tableland of the Mynepat, as a massive harrier between it and Sirgoo- 

 jah, to the west Korbah of Chutteesgurh or the Belaspore district, to 

 the south Raigurh, and to the east Grangpore and Jushpore. It is 

 ahout 64 miles in length by 40 in breadth, and contains about 1800 

 square miles. There are 220 villages. The population may be roughly 

 estimated at 25,000. The only river of consequence is the Mand, an 

 affluent of the Mahanuddee. It rises near Grirsa in Sirgoojah, and re- 

 ceives the streams that flow south from the Mynepat. Near Rabcope, 

 which, though not much of a place, we may call the chief town, it has 

 cut its way through a great mass of sandstone rock, and now flows 

 without obstruction through a narrow pass with perpendicular or 

 rather overhanging cliffs, on the highest portion of which the former 

 Rajahs of Oodeypore, like Barons of the Rhine, had their castle. The 

 site was occupied by the leader of the Oodeypore insurgents in 1857- 

 58, and had he not abandoned his position on the approach of a force 

 sent against him, he might have given us much trouble, as the rock is 

 or might easily be made as inaccessible from the land as from the river 

 side. The river has generally a deep cut channel, flows in alternate 

 rapids and pools, and is not navigable in any part of its course. The 

 country north of Rabcobe rises in steppes to the base of the Mynepat 

 but the surface is everywhere undulated by masses of sandstone rock 

 forming hills, dividing and enriching the culturable lands, as the rocks 

 have many springs, from which fertilizing streams are ever flowing 

 over the terraced plains. But with all these advantages the country 

 is sparsely populated, the villages small and ' far between,' and there 

 appears little prospect of improvement, as the districts all round are in 

 much the same condition. 



There is at present but one weekly market held in Oodeypore, at 

 Dukree, 24 miles due south of Rabcobe. This is attended by people 

 from Raigurh, Chutteesgurh, Sucktee, &c. The chief exports are lac, 

 cotton, resin, oil seeds, rice, wild arrow-root, iron, and a small quantity 

 of gold. 



