26 Notes of a tour in the Tributary Mehals. [No. 1, 



The tableland called the Mynepat is 50 miles in length by 40 in 

 breadth, with an elevation of 3,700 feet above the sea level. Its soil, 

 like that on the Ramgurh hill, is deep and rich, and it possesses numer- 

 ous springs and streams. It abounds in game ; gaur, buffalo, tigers, 

 leopards, and deer, and some of the streams are large enough to give 

 the angler gentler sport. The day must surely come for the fructifi- 

 cation of all these natural advantages, and the tract now occupied by 

 a few herdsmen and savages, may become the head-quarters of a divi- 

 sion, or the seat of a Government. 



Not far from the summit of the Ramgurh hill, an attempt has been 

 made to construct a tank, but it probably was not a success, and it is 

 now nearly filled up with light vegetable mould, of not less than three 

 feet in depth and quite dry. In another direction, a descent of a few 

 hundred feet brings you to a pool of good water percolating a 

 seam of white calcareous clay. A party defending themselves on the 

 rock could not be cut off from this supply, as it is perfectly inaccessible 

 from below, but it would not be adequate to the supply of a large 

 party, and the next nearest source is the spring near the first gateway. 



But the great curiosity of the Ramgurh hill has yet to be described. 

 Two of the spurs of the great rock, themselves rocky and precipitous, 

 forming buttresses on the northern face, instead of gently blending 

 with the plain like others, have their bases truncated, and then united 

 by a vast natural wall of sandstone rock, 150 yards thick and 100 to 

 150 in height. A semi-circular or rather horse shoe shaped nook is 

 thus formed, which, from the height and precipitous nature of the 

 sandstone rock enclosing it, would be almost inaccessible, had not na- 

 ture provided an entrance by a natural tunnel through the subtending 

 wall. This is called the " Hathphor." The waters collected from 

 springs in the nook form a little stream that flows out through the 

 tunnel. At its mouth it is about twenty feet in height by thirty in 

 breadth, but at the inner extremity of its course of 150 yards, it is 

 not more than eight feet by twelve. A man on horseback could ride 

 through it. The sand of the stream in the tunnel was impressed with 

 old and recent foot -prints of a whole family of tigers, who had taken 

 up their abode in this pleasant and secure retreat, but we did not find 

 them at home. The horse shoe embraces an acre or two of ground, 

 well wooded and undulating, so that a considerable body of men could 



