26 Notes of a tour in the Tributary Mehals. [No. 1, 
The tableland called the Mynepat is 50 miles in length by 40 in 
breadth, with an elevation of 3,700 feet above the sea level. Its soil, 
like that on the Ramgurh hill, is deep and rich, and it possesses numer- 
ous springs and streams. It abounds in game; gaur, buffalo, tigers, 
leopards, and deer, and some of the streams are large enough to give 
the angler gentler sport. The day must surely come for the fructifi- 
cation of all these natural advantages, and the tract now occupied by 
a few herdsmen and savages, may become the head-quarters of a divi- 
sion, or the seat of a Government. 
Not far from the summit of the Ramgurh hill, an attempt has been 
made to construct a tank, but it probably was not a success, and it is 
now nearly filled up with light vegetable mould, of not less than three 
feet in depth and quite dry. In another direction, a descent of a few 
hundred feet brings you to a pool of good water percolating a 
seam of white calcareous clay. A party defending themselves on the 
rock could not be cut off from this supply, as it is perfectly inaccessible 
from below, but it would not be adequate to the supply of a large 
party, and the next nearest source is the spring near the first gateway. 
But the great curiosity of the Ramgurh hill has yet to be described. 
Two of the spurs of the great rock, themselves rocky and precipitous, 
forming buttresses on the northern face, instead of gently blending 
with the plain like others, have their bases truncated, and then united 
by a vast natural wall of sandstone rock, 150 yards thick and 100 to 
150 in height. A semi-circular or rather horse shoe shaped nook is 
thus formed, which, from the height and precipitous nature of the 
sandstone rock enclosing it, would be almost inaccessible, had not na- 
ture provided an entrance by a natural tunnel through the subtending 
wall. This is called the ‘ Hathphor.” The waters collected from 
springs in the nook form a little stream that flows out through the 
tunnel. At its mouth it is about twenty feet in height by thirty in © 
breadth, but at the inner extremity of its course of 150 yards, it is 
not more than eight feet by twelve. A man on horseback could ride 
through it. The sand of the stream in the tunnel was impressed with — 
old and recent foot-prints of a whole family of tigers, who had taken 
up their abode in this pleasant and secure retreat, but we did not find 
them at home. The horse shoe embraces an acre or two of ground, — 
well wooded and undulating, so that a considerable body of men could 

