1851.] Notes upon a tour through the Rajmehal Hills. 5G9 



the base of the Tatukpara hill, half an hour's sharp climbing by a 

 steep footpath brought me to the summit of the hill ; the hill village 

 of Tatukpara which the year before had stood on the summit of the 

 hill had consequent upon the death of a villager, been removed half 

 way down into the valley. From the old site there is a capital view 

 to the eastward of a fine cultivated valley which has been occupied and 

 cleared by Sonthals ; this valley is backed by a range of hills studded 

 in every direction with hill villages, the sides and tops of the hills 

 cleared and occupied by large sheets of cultivation cleared by the 

 indefatigable hill-men, and cleared in spots where it is barely possible 

 to walk as I had good proof in returning to my tents down by another 

 road. From Tatukpara I counted thirty hill villages perched either 

 on the summits or on the slopes of the hills, whilst the villages of the 

 bashful and quiet Sonthals were seen far down in the secluded valleys ; 

 on this hill there is a fine collection of trees of a very large growth, 

 the principal of which are mango, fan-leaf palm, tamarind, kurm, 

 pipal, al or moringa, asan and cheronji ; of crops there were the 

 remains of tobacco, Indian corn, junera, bora bean and kahar dall ; 

 the level ground had been ploughed. 



The road up the hill was over compact basalt and masses of iron 

 stone overlying gneiss ; a mile to the north the descent from the hill 

 was over sandstone overlying basalt, the sandstone appearing as a small 

 precipice in the middle of a field or cleared space on the hill side, the 

 rock is of a pale color nearly white and of a very fine texture. The 

 basalt which forms a great portion of the southern and central hills 

 appears to have intruded in upon and to have much disturbed the 

 sandstone and coal beds. The field above alluded to was one of the 

 numerous cleared hill sides on which the hill-men produce as good 

 crops as their low-land neighbours, it was so very steep that no one of 

 the party could descend without holding on by the stumps of trees or 

 by the long kirbee stalks, grass or rocks, any loose stone removed 

 from its place rolled to the bottom of the hill. 



From the forest at the foot of the hill large quantities of the peear 

 or peeal, the delicious little fruit of the Chironjee sapida, are collected 

 by the Sonthals and sold to the buniahs of the plains. This fruit 

 which is dried as a raisin and considered by the rich natives as a great 

 delicacy, sells for eight annas the seer in the Behar and Bhaugalpur 



4 D 



