228 NASARPUR-NASIK. Nasarpur.—Town in Alahyar-jo-Tando táluk, Hála Sub-division, Haidarábád District, Sind, Bombay Presidency. Population (1881) 3206. Trade insignificant. Small cloth manufacture. Police lines, rest-house, post-office, and vernacular school. The town is of very ancient construction, and said to have been built in 989 AD. Násik (Nasica of Ptolemy).—British District in the Bombay Presidency, lying between 19° 34' and 20° 52' n. lat., and between 73° 18' and 75° E. long Area, 5940 square miles. Population in 1881, 781,206 persons. Bounded on the north by the District of Khándesh; on the east by the Nizán's Dominions; on the south by Ahmadnagar; and on the west by Thána District, the territories of Dharampur, Surgána, and the Khándesh Dángs. The administrative head-quarters are at NASIK town. Physical Aspects.— With the exception of a few villages in the west, the whole District is situated on a table-land, at an elevation of from 1300 to 2000 feet above the sea. The western portion, from north to south, called dáng, is generally much divided by hills, and intersected by ravines; and only the simplest kind of cultivation is possible. The eastern portion, called desh, is open, fertile, and well cultivated. The Chánder range of hills forms the watershed of the District, and divides the valley of the Girna from the valley of the Godávari. It stretches from Peint east into the Nizam's Dominions, and is crossed by several fair passes. The most important of these takes its name from the range, and is traversed by a first-class bridged and metalled road. East of Rahudi, the Chánder range ceases to be a barrier. All streams of any size to the south of that range are tributaries of the Godavari—the principal of these being the Dárna, Kádwa, Deo, and Maralgin. To the north of the watershed, the Girna and its tributary the Mosam flour through fertile valley's into the Tápti. With the exception of the Sahyadri mountains, which run north and south, the general direction of the hill ranges in Násik is from west to cast. The District contains several hill forts, the scenes of many engagements during the Maráthả wars. The geological formation is trap-beds of basalt alternating, seemingly, quite horizontally with amygdaloid, the ridges of the hills everywhere capped with compact basalt, and the slopes below the upper basaltic escarpment formed by the weathering of the softer amygdaloid. No minerals are worked. Except in one or two Sub-divisions, where black soil is found, the soil is poor and stony. The forests which formerly covered the Sahyadri hills have nearly disappeared, but every effort is being made to prevent further destruction, and to re-clothe some of the hills. The forests that remain cover 1600 square miles, but contain few timber-trees of value; on the other hand, there is a good deal of valuable coppice teak, and much wood useful both for house-building and firewood. The District generally is very destitute of trees. Of
