8 HUGHES : SOUTHERN COAL-FIELDS OF REWAH G<5nD WANA BASIN. 



height is not great enough to make them imposing, and during the cold 

 weather, which was my only opportunity for seeing them, the water 

 passing over the dark basaltic sheets of the river channel was too 

 attenuated to be a pronounced embellishment to the sombre background 

 of the picture. 



In the Hestho, and most of the streams directly and indirectly con- 

 nected with it, there are some very striking water- 

 Waterfalls. ... . 



falls, and in the statistical account of the Tributary 



States of Chutia Nagpiir, edited by Dr. W. W. Hunter, Vol. XVII, men- 

 tion is made of one of the finest in the Hestho near the village of *Kir- 



Kirwahi falls— see wahi. 1 A large volume of water is precipitated, and 

 frontispiece. th(J gouud of itg £a]]ing . ean ]jQ heard for a j ong 



distance on a still evening. A representation of it from one of my own 

 photographs forms the frontispiece of this memoir. 



In the Kewai there are long reaches of much-eroded sandstone, and 

 the appearance of some of them struck me as being of sufficient interest 

 to form another illustration of fluvial scenery. 



There is a rank luxuriance of grass in all the lowlands and high- 

 lands, and wherever trap occurs. The latter is 



Grass. Spear grass. 



always a nursery for the worst form of spear 

 grass, and for the several years that we have been engaged in tracing 

 the boundaries of intrusions or overflows of volcanic origin, we have 

 been compelled, where accuracy was a matter of necessity, to delay our 

 examinations until the season was well advanced, and spring fires and 

 migratory herds of cattle had assisted to clear the ground of this unwel- 

 come hinderance to geological research. In all instances where I have 

 been forced into contact with this baneful pest, I have deemed it a duty 

 to inveigh against it, but no emphasizing can convey a proper sense of 

 the condemnation that it deserves in the south Rewah and Korea 

 district. In the cold weather it possesses the charm of greenness; but the 

 feeling of pleasure that this gives rise to is dashed by the disappointing 

 knowledge that every stalk is armed with a sheaf of barbed arrows, 



1 Kirwahi, 82° 24' E. long., and 23° 21' N. lat, 



( 144 ) 



