NAGPUR DISTRICT. 165 Waná, the Sur, and the Bor) flows between high banks, in a narrow channel deep below the surface of the country, along a sandy bed, barred here and there with jagged ledges of rock. In a flood, the waters swell with extraordinary rapidity, and pour down in impetuous torrents to the Waingangá. Here and there rises a solitary height, such as the Haldolí Hills in the south-east, 1300 feet high; the heights at Chápgarhi and Bhiokúnd; and, in the north-east of the District, the sacred hill of Rámtek. The last attains an elevation of 1400 feet above the sea. It is in the form of a horse-shoe, with the heel towards the south-east. At its outer extremity, towards the north, the cliff is scarped, rising sheer from the base about 500 feet. On the summit are the old fortress and the temples ; below, in the hollow formed by the inner sides of the hill, and enbosomed in groves of mango and tamarind, nestles a lake, its margin adorned with temples, and enclosed by broad flights of steps of hewn stone, reaching down to the water. From the summit, the prospect is wide and magnificent. Lastly, in the middle of the plain stands the isolated little hill crowned by the Sítábaldi fort, commanding an extensive view, and interesting both from its historical associations and its geological importance. Within the limits of the horizon, as seen from Sítábaldi, every formation belonging to the District is to be found. Indeed, the circuit of a few hundred yards presents an epitome of the geology of the Peninsula. On the hill-top, the surface is strewn with nodular trap. A few yards below, in the scarped face of the hill, may be traced a shallow layer of fresh-water formation ; below this, a soft bluish tufa, which passes into a porous amygdaloid, and deeper, into an exceedingly fine augitic greenstone. At the base of the hill, beneath the basalt, is sandstone; and below the sandstone, gneiss. This juxtaposition of volcanic and plutonic rocks, enclosing between them the wreck of a vast sandstone formation, invests the geology of Nagpur with particular interest. Over more than half the area of the District, trap is the surface rock. The serrated outline of the Baláhí Hills, near Bhandara, indicates the crystalline formations which extend down to Cuttack, as the flattened summits characterize the trap. In the upper part of the Waná valley, and northwards from Nagpur up the basins of the Kolár, the Kanhán, and the Pench, sandstone formations predominate. In some few parts, as at Maundá, and near Umrer, beds of laterite occur on the surface. The superficial deposits are the regar or black cotton-soil, and the red soil. The former is found almost universally with trap, and seldoni exceeds 12 feet in depth. The red soil is sometimes as deep as 50 feet, and occurs with plutonic rocks, sandstone, or laterites. Neither deposit is fossiliferous. History. --The first rulers in this part of the country are said to have been the mythical Gaulí chieftains, whose exploits yet live in the songs
