NARSINGHPUR. 217 of hills. They afford a fine example of cliffs, once formed by the denuding action of shore-wares, but now far inland. Ripple-marking, almost totally absent in the other sandstone groups of Central India, is found almost everywhere throughout the l'indhyan series in extraordinary perfection. Twrice in Varsinghpur the l'indhyan leadlands abut on the river bed, and twice open out into the bay-lıke curves which constitute the trans-Narbadá portions of the District. The face of the Satpura range overlooking the valley from the south is generally regular, rising nowhere more than 500 feet above the plain. The hills run in a line almost parallel to the Narbadá, at a distance from it of 15 or 20 miles; and the intervening space forms the greater part of the District. Along the valley, the rich level is seldom broken, except by occasional niounds of gravel or kankar (nodular linestone), which offer serviceable village sites. Any inequalities of surface are generally turned to account for the construction of tanks and reservoirs, often adorned by the graceful domed teniples, which take the place of the needle-shaped spires common in the Hindu shrines of Upper India. Nearly erery village is embellished by its deep mango groves, and old pipal and tamarind trees; and indeed the commonest village names are those derived from trees. Thus such names as Pipariá (the pipal village), Imaliá (the tamarind village), and Umariá (the wild fig village) abound throughout the District. After the rains, the black soil softens into a stiff bog; but in the winter months, the valley presents the appearance of a broad strip of land, walled in on either side by low hill ranges, and green from end to end with young wheat. As soon as the limits of the black soil are passed, the country changes. Below either range of hills, but more especially on the Sátpura side, are broad belts of red gravelly soil, which merge through woody borders into the lower slopes of the highlands. In these tracts, the wheat of the valley gives way to rice, sugar-cane, and the poorer rain-crops; the village roofs are of thatch instead of tile ; forest trees take the place of mango groves, and reservoirs are replaced by mountain streams. But though less productive, the country has become more picturesque, with its river gorges, and its open glades, covered with short sward, and dotted with old mahuá trees. The hill country of the District is insignificant in extent, being nearly confined to the smaller of the tracts north of the Narbadá. Nor are the forests of importance. Probably no District in the Central Provinces is so devoid of extensive wastes, and such as exist are too accessible for jungle produce to be abundant. Narsinghpur presents few attractions to the sportsman. The jungles are ill stocked with large game, and remarkable for the scarcity of their birds. The Narbadá is fed almost entirely from the south. Its principal affluents are the Sher and the Shakar, the latter of which was once
