PLANTS OF CHUTIA NAGPUR 
Damuda River valley is reached at Ramgurh, quite off the plateau but 
by no steep ghat. I suppose that 500 feet would cover its height 
above the sea. 
The coal measures are met with here, where they are worked on 
a small scale. They occur more or less from Ranigunge right up to 
the source of the river and carry over into Palamow along the Koel 
basin to be worked on the Son at Dehri. The section now runs 
through the Baragai range, which is wooded to the summits at 3,000 
to 4,000 feet. Like Parasnath, this range runs east and west. The 
finest view of the mountain is from the north, for one gets from the 
north side fuller value, so to speak, because the Damuda valley at 
about 500 feet is the foreground. The same hill viewed from the 
south has a foreground, of 2,000 feet and is not so grand. 
From Ramgurh the country is level and pretty open to the foot 
of the Lohardugga plateau — 5 miles or so. A pretty steep ascent on 
a bicycle road takes us to Chutu Palu on the top — some 5 miles 
further. The ghat is as usual jungle and tree-clad and is grand 
botanical ground. Once on the table^land the story is as before in 
crossing it from east to west. It is a shallow basin drained by the 
Subarnarekha river on the east and the South Koel on the west. 
The Damuda of course takes the northern drainage. 
The foundation is gneiss ; remarkable examples of the bell struc- 
ture are seen at Ranchi, also at Lohardugga and Palkot. The 
country is terraced for rice where the ground is suitable, and in the 
cold weather dalls, mustard and sirguja are generally cultivated. 
Patches of scrub-jungle are passed through, and such trees are in 
evidence as religion or advantage have saved from the woodman’s 
axe. This continues for some sixty miles, when, after a slight rise 
the southern lip of the basin is passed over between hills, which here, 
as usual, edge the plateau— among tree-jungle which accompanies us 
until the 500-foot level is reached towards Chakardarpur Railway 
Station in Singbhum and rice-land is again arrived at. 
Much of District Manbhum is quite oft the plateau, but in the 
south-west it meets aad mixes with the higher lands of Singbhum 
and of Lohardugga where, about the 2,000 level, the three districts 
meet. Much of Singbhum is also on the plains level, but parts of it 
rise to 2,900 and even 3,500 feet. It is so irregular that I shall not 
attempt to describe it in detail. 
A note on the rivers, in which I follow Hooker, and I have done. 
The chief rivers from the Chutia Nagpur plateau, the great water- 
shed of Western Bengal, flow north-west or south-east, a few com- 
paratively insignificant streams running north to ihe Ganges. 
