1840.] March from Binmhan Ghat to Umurkuntuk. 89/ 



Kurunjeea, eleven miles. The first part skirts and passes over some low trap 

 hills up to the village Bukree, when the country opens out into a very large 

 grass plain ; the Nerbudda north, distant three or four miles ; cross a stream, 

 the Toorar, and up to the shoulder of a lofty hill with a conspicuous peak 

 overlooking the village of Ramnuggur ; remainder open ; Umurkuntuk nine 

 and half miles. The road lies through a small valley, in which flows the Kur- 

 mundal with lofty hills on each side, gradually closing in to the entrance of 

 the pass, which becomes a dense jungle ; the ascent is about a mile, and pretty 

 steep, but not very bad for cattle ; pass along a ridge where there is a small 

 grass valley in which is a pool of water, called Hathee Dabur, and on des- 

 cending a ridge, a spring issues from the head of a ravine, said to be the 

 source of the Kurmundal nulla. There is a Chabootra, and many plantain 

 trees at the spot, known by the name of Kurbeer Chabootra ; after this two 

 ridges are crossed, when you attain the table land, and about half a mile 

 before reaching the Koond join in with the road from the Jogee ghatee, by 

 which we ascended in the former march. 



I have said but little on the geological formation of this route, for the 

 reason that it is so simple, and affords so little variety ; the first ghatee, 

 which is the same range as the Doondoo ghatee, is unvaried basalt, and 

 so continues the whole way the same formation, the hills and peaks 

 from Patungurh being capped with laterite, and all the beds of nuUas 

 basalt; little laterite is seen in the plains until the Tendoo ghatee is 

 ascended, when the soil is more or less of a reddish colour, and after 

 ascending Ghooghurwahee ghatee the soil is entirely so ; about Sulwah 

 and Patun fossil shells, same as those from eighteen miles east of Jabul- 

 poor, imbedded in indurated clay, are met with, and on the east side of the 

 Mohtura ghatee is a small conical hill, containing similar shell breccia. 

 In the latter are found the shell delineated in the Asiatic Journal for 

 September 1839, plate. — fig. A. 11. originally found on the Pureyl ghat, 

 which is on the first plateau on the Mekul hills overlooking the plains 

 of Soohagpoor ; a few bivalves also have been met with in this locality. 

 Travertin was found near the summit of the Mohtura ghatee, and a red- 

 dish sandstone formed the bed of the Seeoonee nulla, a mile or so before 

 its junction with the Nerbudda. With these exceptions laterite resting 

 on basalt is the characteristic of the country. 



The table land of Umurkuntuk constitutes the second plateau of the Me- 

 kul hills, and is but of small extent, six miles either way would bring you 

 to a precipitous descent. 



East from the Koond, less than a mile, is a bluff rock of basalt, over 

 which a very small stream trickles with a fall of 252 perpendicular feet, and 



