1857.] Report on the Progress of the Magnetic Survey. 61 



I found in several localities the thin lacustrine deposit, which 

 reposes on trap, and is again overlaied by other layers of trap. 



In some places it was full of fossil fresh-water shells of Physa, 

 Unio, Melania, &c. 



The principal fossiliferous localities which I visited were Phool 

 Saugor, about 9 miles west of Mundlah, Bellasur, and Bonder. 



The plateau of Umerkuntuk is one of the culminating points 

 of Central India and this place, and the hills in its neighbourhood, 

 form the important water-shed of Central India, between the 

 Rivers Nerbudda, Soane, Tohilla, and Mahanuddy. The plateau of 

 Umerkuntuk is not very large — it is nearly circular, and surround- 

 ed by hills, which are only 50 to 60 English feet higher. The 

 slopes are very steep to the East and South, whilst they are much 

 more gentle to the West and North. The hills run from Umer- 

 kuntuk first in a Northerly direction, and then turn to the North- 

 West. They are generally known by the inhabitants under the 

 name of Mokul. The highest point of this range is probably 

 Rajmeergurh, near Umerkuntuk, which it exceeds by about 500 

 English feet— the latter place itself is about 3,290 to 3,330 English 

 feet. 



The Nerbudda alone rises on the plateau of Umerkuntuk. It 

 has its origin in a tank or pool, surrounded in the most irregular 

 way, with solid masonry and fine temples : — one of the oldest of 

 them seems to me to be a Jain (Buddhist) temple. The tank is fed 

 by subterranean springs, and the origin of the Nerbudda is thus 

 precisely similar to that of the Kistna, on the plateau of Maha- 

 baleshwur in the Deccan. 



I determined the quantity of water at the spot where the Ner- 

 budda flows out of the tank, and found it to be, on the 23rd of 

 January, only two French litres per second. But very soon this 

 little rivulet is met by the waters of two other springs, and only 

 a few miles from its source it is joined by the waters of two more 

 springs, and forms a beautiful cataract of about 70 English feet. 



The Soane has not its rise at Umerkuntuk, but to the East of 

 the hill, and about 1,200 feet lower than the Nerbudda in an open 

 partially cultivated spot, from a tank called Sone Budder, 8 miles 



