Forests. District Selections. Bulda'na. There cannot be said to be any forests in the district, though in the ravines in the northern gháts and over the higher plateaus teak saplings exist in great numbers. It is doubtful whether the soil in which these saplings are found is of a nature to admit of their ever developing into trees of any size or value. The absence of any traces of large teak-trees seems to indicate that it is not. The northern slopes of the Ajanta range are well covered with anjan-trees, now so wastefully hacked and felled as to require years for recovery, but promising a valuable reserve hereafter, and the district is generally well wooded. Fine specimens of anjan-trees are to be met with in most of the ravines, the mango flourishes, and there are large numbers of bábúl-trees scattered throughout the country, in some places forming very extensive coppices. The northern taluk of Malkapúr, in the valley of the Púrna, is perhaps the least fortunate in its supply of large wood, but taken as a whole the district is well provided with trees. The following varieties are found, viz. :— Bábúl-Acacia arabica. Bijásal—Pterocarpus marsupium. Bhiláwa-Semecarpus anacardium. Bakhain-Melia sempervirens. Chár-Buchanania. Dhámúra. Dhaura-Conocarpus latifolia. Jámbul-Eugenia jambolana. Khair-Acacia catechu. Khirni. Mango-Mangifera indica. Mhowa-Bassia latifolia. Nim-Azadirachta indica. ' Aula-Phyllanthus emblica. Palmyra-Borassus flabelliformis. Sádra or Sáj-Pentaptera tomentosa. Temburni-Diospyros melanoxylon. Tamarind-Tamarindus indica. Wu'n. Though the waste tracts in this district are very extensive, there is no valuable timber; diminutive teak-trees certainly exist all over the hilly tracts, yielding no revenue. The teak-trees are strictly preserved; and there are in three places in the district teak plantations sown some ages ago in the vicinity of temples, or in honour of some presiding deity. The fear of incurring divine displeasure has saved these plantations from devastation. The largest is situated at Pathrot. It now, however, contains no valuable trees, and it has been decided to allow the plantation to be cut down, with the exception of certain promising saplings, on the payment of a royalty. The plantations at Mángla, pargana Ner, and at Dápori, Wún pargana, though less extensive, contain some hundreds of young trees which promise well. They have all been preserved by superstition, for in their neighbourhood so great a dread have the people of profaning the woods that during the annual festivals held at these sacred places it has been the custom to collect and burn solemnly all dead and fallen branches or trees. The following are the only ranges where good and flourishing young timber is now to be found : Yewatmál range. Wún range. Painganga range. The Yewatmál range occupies an area of about 700 square miles, and contains a very fair mixed forest. Salai (Boswellia thurifera) is everywhere the predominant tree. Of others the best grown and most plentiful are The two last, so valuable for their fruit, are equally scattered all over the hills. Tiwas is met with chiefly on the plateaus; and kowa, which is of better growth than that in either the Básim or Búldána districts, is found along the banks of rivers and nallas. The Wún range is better wooded than the Yewatmál one, and contains a thick growth of bamboos, which adds conveniently to the picturesque appearance of the forests. In all the ravines are to be found, in addition to the trees existing in the Yewatmál hills, a plentiful supply of Behera-Terminalia bellerica, Lendia-Lagerstroemia parviflora, Bijasal-Pterocarpus marsupium, intermixed with a few trees of teak, shisam (Dalbergia latifolia), and tiwas. The Khelapúr forests very much resemble those of the Wún range with reference to the quantity, quality, and description of timber they contain. Forests. District Selections. Forests. District Selections, There is, however, a greater amount of teak, which towards the south becomes very plentiful, and predominates in number over every other description of tree. The Painganga forests, comprised within the hills skirting the banks of this river, are in most respects similar to those in the Yewatmál range. Being more inaccessible, however, and the neighbouring population being very scanty, they have not been worked to so great an extent, and consequently their timber is of better growth. They also contain a large amount of mopah (Schrebera swietenioides), a tree which is very scarce in all the other forests of the Wún district. Ba'sim. Along the ranges of hills eastward of Básim, especially in the Pusad taluk, and down towards the Painganga, are wide stretches of woodland, which contain many patches of young teak. But throughout the Básim district these trees are almost all shoots from old stumps, poles about forty or fifty to the acre, of twelve inches girth at six feet from the ground, and shooting up straight as masts for twenty feet or so. The timber is of best quality on the hills between the Pús and Painganga rivers. It is plentiful in the far south-east corners of the district, and in most of the well-sheltered ravines of this tract. No valuable timber of long growth now exists, though the country is well provided with the scrub jungle that supplies fuel; while, except in the western parganas, the mhowa and the mango, with all the other trees usually preserved in this country for fruit and shade, abound in the cultivated fields and round villages. Rivers. CHAPTER IV. RIVERS. The outer range of the Gáwilgarh mountains sends its rainfall down to the Berár valley, and these waters feed the Púrna, but the inner highlands drain north to the Tapti. The Ajanta hills despatch one perennial tributary to the Púrna, the Káti Púrna; and numberless petty streams. descend from the northern slopes and crest of this range; but the large rivers of Bálághát flow south and south-east. The line at the eastern end of the valley at which its brooks begin to flow toward the Wardha marks one of the watersheds of the Indian continent, and the same line may be traced through the Bálághát country along the high ground between Akola and Básim, whence the eastward-bound A'ran river turns its back upon the affluents of the Púrna. The Tapti forms during a short section of its course the northern boundary of Berár; it is the only first-class river to which the province can lay any sort of claim, for its tribute is paid direct, without mediation, into the sea. But the Wardha is by far our most important river. It commands the contingents of almost every considerable stream, and collects water all over the castern and southern slopes of the country. Moreover, it marks one whole side, from north to south, of the province's frontier; it runs right through a rich coal-field (which it must have the credit of uncovering), while it is the main affluent to the Godávari, and thus a principal shareholder in the stream which is to carry and develop all the commerce of our land-locked south-eastern districts. Of rivers which maintain a fair running stream all the year round there is only one in the valley of Berár, the Púrna; all the rest cease to flow towards the end of dry weather, though their beds may be jotted with pools of water. In the Bálághát we have two perennial Káti Púrnas, one rising beyond the extreme west of Berár and falling into the Godávari, the other flowing down the Ajanta hills into the Púrna. Both are perennial streams, wide, rapid, and deep during and after the periodical rains, but very low in midsummer. The Painganga or Pranhita is the largest river of Southern Berár; it rises in the north-west corner of the province, and runs across it in a south-easterly direction, until beyond Wakad its course becomes the boundary-line between the Assigned Districts and the Nizám's country, down to its junction with the Wardha. The Varada or Wardha is named in the Rámáyana. The Painganga (Payoshni ?) and the Tapti (Tápi, Vína) have honourable mention in the Vishnu Purána. In the eastern districts of Berár the A'ran and Pús are considerable streams. The whole province has only one natural lake, the salt-lake of Lonár, which is elsewhere described. Nor have Water storage. we any large tanks or artificial water reservoirs. Some shallow catchment basins have been dammed up here and there, principally to store drinking-water for men and cattle; and at Sindkher, also at Básim, there are some handsome stone-lined tanks. Some attempt at holding up the river waters by masonry weirs across their channels has been made at Malkapúr and Akola; but the best waterwork now existing in Berár is the old conduit (half-ruined in these days) which was built about two hundred years ago by the Mahomedan governors at Elichpúr to supply the town, as it still does. Rivers. District Selections. Rivers. District Selections. The following are other principal watercourses, but they only flow for eight months in the year : As might be expected, numberless streams take their rise in the watershed of the Sátpura. Out of these, sixteen only deserve naming— Seven-the Bichan, Sháhnúr, Sapan, Pator, Chanderbhága, Mohsli, and Bhan-flow southwards into the Púrna, itself an affluent of the Tapti. The remaining nine-the Kursi, Kápra, Tiwgria, Sipna, Kanda, Garga, Nárpa, Dúl, and Mángar-drain the country northwards, carrying their waters to the Tapti direct. Towards the hot season all these streams dry up, save in parts where natural cavities or dohos are large enough to hold a supply till the monsoon breaks again. These are deep cavernous basins worn out of the solid rock by the rush of water from above, and are found in the upper hills. Lower down again the water lies in large sheets. At a village on the Sipna there is one of these hot-weather reservoirs over a mile in length, about 100 yards wide, and of considerable depth. The Tapti skirts in its course about thirty miles of the northern boundary of Melghat. Its tributaries—the Kursi, Kanda, Kápra, Sipna, and Garga-rising immediately under the loftiest summits of the range, drain nearly three-fourths of the country. The water from the southern and more declivitous face of these hills is carried down to the Púrna through means of its feeders-the Sapan, Bichan, Chandra Bhága, Jánhvi, and Wán. The Tapti here runs in a deep bed varying in width from 100 to 150 yards. Its waters flow all the year. There are, however, numerous shoals and rocky barriers, which render it easily fordable during the dry season. The sides of the river, running as it does between two lofty ranges of hills, would, it is natural to suppose, be very steep. This is not the case, however. Only at the bends and curves do the banks appear more or less scarped. As a rule they slope towards the water at an angle of 45 degrees, and are verdant throughout the hot weather, being frequently covered with a thick underwood, intermingled with the kowa, jáman, mango, gular, and other beautiful evergreen trees, which, overhanging the waters, afford by their shade many a pleasant retreat for the fish which abound in this river. Wood cut in these forests is floated down the Tapti to Burhánpúr in the rains. The operation is rendered somewhat difficult by the occurrence of certain rocky obstructions in the bed; but the fact that wood is |