152 



071 tJie Statistics of Dukliun, 



[Jan. 



main plateau of Dukhiin is about 2000 feet high near the Ghats, and 

 scarcely exceeds lOCO feet in the eastern limits of the collec- 

 torat es. The whole territory is mountainous near to the 

 Ghats, and has numerous valleys, some of thera narvow and tortuous, 

 others broar!, open, and flat. At from thirty to fifty miles eastward from 

 the Ghats, most of the mountain spurs which produce the valleys termi- 

 nate, and the country becomes open and tolerably level for considerable 

 distances, with an occasional step down to the eastward ; the country, 

 in fact, being made up of beds of trap, the be ds extending the further to 

 the eastward the lower they are in the series. There is much forest 

 and underwood and jungle along the line of the Ghats ; hut to the east- 

 ward the country is open, and there is a want of wood ; parts of Khan- 

 desh and Dliarwar are exceptions to this description. The western 

 tracts along the Ghats are call ^d the Mawuls, in contradistinction to the 

 open country, which is called the Desh or Des. 



It may be as well to state here that a'l lands in Dukhim are chissed 

 within some village boundary or other, and this boundary is maintained 

 with su h jealousy and tenacity by the inhabitants, as to lead to fre- 

 quent f-^uds andbloodshpd on the slightest invasion of village rights. 

 The vill tge constitution and the occupancy of lands will be mentioned 

 under land-tenures. 



E'icers. — The rivers of Dukhun, which in the monsoon flow with a 

 magnificent vo'ume of water, in the hot season present a broad gravelly 

 bed, with only a thread-like stream in many of them, but from natural 

 barriers of rock in the bed of the Beem i, Godavery, Kistnah, and other 

 large rivers of Dukhan, extensive sheets of water, called Dho or Dhao, 

 are formed, which abound with fish. 



Roads and Br'dgps.— The roads in Dukhun, with the exception of two 

 great mi' itarv roads, are untouched by art; and few of the rivers can 

 boast of a bridge.* 



Climate, 



A detailed account of th^ atmospheric tides, and meteorology of Duk- 

 hun having been ]iub'ished in the Phro'^ophical Transactions, .1 shall 

 limit myself to a description of such broad features as characterize the 

 climate. The Ghats and the Desh have distinct features. The tract 

 along the line of the former has a lower mean temperature, much more 



* The Geology of the Deccan, which follows ia this place, was re-published by us from 

 the 7 runmctiom oj' the •• Seological Society of London, ia the 17th Number of this Journal, 

 p. 344.— -liDiToa, Madras Journal, 



