mCLUDING JASPUR AND SIRGUjA. 
3 
i c-an give no better description of the lie of the Chutia Nagpur 
plateau than Hooker^s, written in 
1848,^ of which the following is a 
precis. His Parasnath range I take the liberty to call also the Chutia 
Nagpur plateau j thus— The Plateau is the north-eastern continua- 
tion of that range which crosses the Peninsula from the Gulf of Cambay 
to Rajmehal. It meets the Kymore about 82° east longitude at Amar- 
. „ . , , , kantak^ — 7,000-8,000 feet high,^ and 
further west the southern range forms 
the Satpura, The Parasnath range is the longer of the two, as the 
north-east Vindhya or Kymore ends at Fort Chunar. 
The Kymore consists of sandstone beds overlying limestone, 
whereas the Parasnath group consists of metamorphic gneiss through 
which granite protrudes. The Grand Trunk Road as above crosses 
the east end alone of the range with a very gradual ascent over the 
alluvial plains of the west of the Hooghly, then over laterite and the 
sandstone of the coal measures, succeeded by the granitic table-land. 
A little beyond the coal-field the average height is 1,130 feet, which 
is continued for upwards of 100 miles to the Dunwah pass. Here the 
descent, from 1,360 to 620 feet, is sudden to the plains, which con- 
tinue those of the Ganges up the Son till beyond Rohtasgurh, where 
the level is under 350 feet. 
The Chutia Nagpur plateau differs in its climate and botany equally 
from the Gangetic plains to the north and from Orissa on the south. 
The north and the south section begins at the Ganges, passes 
through the Rajmehal hills and Santalia to Giridi coal pits^ crosses 
the Barakar river flowing east, and then rises gradually for 20 miles 
or so to the foot of the hill, then to 4,480 feet at the peak of Paras- 
nath and falls on the south side to about 1,000 feet, the level of Tope 
Chaney or Doomree, where we may consider ourselves landed upon 
the Hazaribagh plateau. 
This plateau is not so well defined as that of Lohardugga to the 
south is, and it does not so uniformly approach the 2,000 level. From 
the base of Parasnath the section rises to Hazaribagh, cutting across 
the drainage, which all flows to the east, and passing through open 
country with patches of jungle. 
At Hazaribagh, about 2,000 feet, knobs of gneiss appear, and hills, 
such as Seetagurha and Jumra where tea is cultivated. Scrub jungle 
is met with, but most of the ground is open and under cultivation* 
Between Hazaribagh and the southern edge of this plateau, some five- 
and-twenty miles, the scrub and other jungle increases in frequency, 
until it becomes the rule by the roadside, and the welbwooded 
B 2 
