1865.] Notes of a tour in the Tributary Mehals. 21 
classed amongst the most degraded of the people, (and in Gangpore 
not held in much higher estimation,) holding a high position in 
Oodeypore. 
I have insensibly glided into Oodeypore. In no published map are 
the boundaries of that district defined. It has to the north the gre&t 
tableland of the Mynepat, as a massive barrier between it and Sirgoo- 
jah, to the west Korbah of Chutteesgurh or the Belaspore district, to 
the south Raigurh, and to the east Gangpore and Jushpore. It is 
about 64 miles in length by 40 in breadth, and contains about 1800 
square miles. There are 220 villages. The population may be roughly 
estimated at 25,000. The only river of consequence is the Mand, an 
affluent of the Mahanuddee. It rises near Girsa in Sirgoojah, and re- 
ceives the streams that flow south from the Mynepat. Near Rabcope, 
which, though not much of a place, we may call the chief town, it has 
cut its way through a great mass of sandstone rock, and now flows 
without obstruction through a narrow pass with perpendicular or 
rather overhanging cliffs, on the highest portion of which the former 
Rajahs of Oodeypore, like Barons of the Rhine, had their castle. The 
site was occupied by the leader of the Oodeypore insurgents in 1857- 
58, and had he not abandoned his position on the approach of a force 
sent against him, he might have given us much trouble, as the rock is 
or might easily be made as inaccessible from the land as from the river 
side. The river has generally a deep cut channel, flows in alternate 
rapids and pools, and is not navigable in any part of its course. The 
country north of Rabcobe rises in steppes to the base of the Mynepat, 
but the surface is everywhere undulated by masses of sandstone rock, 
forming hills, dividing and enriching the culturable lands, as the rocks 
have many springs, from which fertilizing streams are ever flowing 
over the terraced plains. But with all these advantages the country 
is sparsely populated, the villages small and ‘ far between,’ and there 
appears little prospect of improvement, as the districts all round are in 
much the same condition. 
There is at present but one weekly market held in Oodeypore, at 
Dukree, 24 miles due south of Rabcobe. This is attended by people 
from Raigurh, Chutteesgurh, Sucktee, &e. The chief exports are lae, 
cotton, resin, oil seeds, rice, wild arrow-root, iron, and a small quantity 
of gold. 
