PHYSICAL ASrKC'iS AND CIExNERAL CiEOLOCiY. 
151 
CHAPTER 11. 
PHYSICAL ASPECTS AND GENERAL GEOLOGY. 
This State being so little known and out of the way, I cannot 
do better than remove bodily from the Gazet- 
ihyskal aspccth. ^^^^ Chhattisgarh Feudatory States the 
paragraph dealing with its boundaries and physical features. This 
paragraph is as follows : — 
'Korea was a State in the Chota Nagpnr Division of Bengal until 1905 
when it was transferred to tlie Central Provinces. It lies between 22°56 
and 23°48' N. and 81°56' and 82°47' E., with an area and population of 
1,G3P sq. miles and 35,113^ persons respectively. It is bounded on the 
north by the Rewah State, on the east by the Surguja State, on the 
south by the Bilaspur District, and on the west by the Chang Bhakar and 
Rewah States. This State is virtually nothing but one vast mass of hill 
ranges, crowding in on one another and covered with dense forests. In the 
small villages between the hill ranges there is a little cultivation. The 
country is divided into tluee distinct steppes ; the first from the plains of 
Srinagar in Surguja State on the east of the low lands of Patna and 
Khargawan ; the second from thence to the uplands round Sonhat and the 
third to the great plateau stretching away to Chang Bhakar State on 
the west. The general level of the lower tableland is about 1,800 feet 
above the sea. The Sonhat plateau has an elevation of 2,477 feet and the 
maximum elevation of the highest plateau is 3,370 feet, this being the altitude 
of the Deogarh peak. The Sonhat plateau forms the watershed of streams 
flowing in three different directions — on the west to the river Gopath, which 
has its source in one of the ridges of the Deogarh peak, and divides Korea 
from Chang Bhakar, on the north-east to the Son, and on the south to 
the Hasdo, the largest river in the State, which runs nearly north and 
south into the Bilaspur District and eventually falls into the Mahanadi. Its 
course is rocky tlu'oughout, and there is a fine waterfall at Kirwahi. Sonhat 
w'as until lately the capital of the State, but the Feudatoi'y Chief found it 
unhealthy and has recently moved to Baikunthpur (some sixteen miles south) 
and is constructing a new capital there.' 
^ ' This figure which diffi rs ironi t)ii' area shown in the Census R( port on 1901 
was supplied by the Survoyor-(''cneral.' 
" Tlio population according to the Census of 1911 is 62,107 persons. 
