78 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA 



one of the most holy and indispensable points in the 

 circuit which the devout pilgrim must perform. 



The place has also a slight historical interest. During 

 the last of our struggles with the Marathas, Appa Saheb 

 Bhonsla, Raja of Nagpiir, on his way to an exile justly 

 earned by repeated acts of treachery, escaped and fled 

 to the fastnesses of the Mahadeo hills ; and it was in this 

 secluded ravine, if tradition speaks the truth, that he was 

 concealed by the fidelity of his aboriginal subjects till he 

 finally made his escape, while detachments of British 

 troops were hunting for him in every other nook and recess 

 in the mountains. 



Beyond the Jambo-Dwip, or "great ravine" as we 

 called it, and between it and the valley of the Sonbhadra, 

 lies another group of wild hills, a little lower than the 

 Puchmurree block in elevation, and with few level plateaux 

 of any extent. One or two poor hamlets of Korkiis occupy 

 its most sheltered nooks; but the soil is everywhere ex- 

 tremely thin, and there is a great absence of water in this 

 section of the Mahadeo range, so that it is almost un- 

 inhabited. The Sonbhadra valley itself can only be 

 entered where it leaves the southern face of the hills, by 

 a difiicult pathway along the edges of the rapid stream; 

 but the scene is well deserving of the scramble of eight 

 or ten miles on foot by which it is reached. It is utterly 

 untenanted even by animals, save a few melancholy bears, 

 and its steep precipices, and long slopes of gray and naked 

 rock, interspersed with scanty moor-like vegetation, are 

 singularly suggestive of a comparison with the well-known 

 valley of Glencoe. 



These deep and gloomy dells that seam the Puchmurree 

 block are the home of a splendid squirrel {Sciurus maximus), 

 measuring two and a half to three feet in length, and of 

 a rich, deep claret colour, with a blue metallic lustre on 

 the upper parts of the body, the lower parts being rufous 

 yellow. They dwell in the upper branches of the wild 

 mango trees, making nests of the leaves, generally in the 

 very top. They live chiefly on the mango fruit, lavishly 

 squandering the supply while the fresh mangoes are 

 attainable, and afterwards cracking the discarded stones 



