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Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 13, p. 180.

180 HOSHANGABAD DISTRICT of Berar. Most of the peaks of the Satpuras rise to about.2,000 feet, or a little over, but in the Mahadeo hills there are three with an elevation of over 4,000 feet. Hoshangabad town is i,or r feet above the sea, and the fall of the Narbada in this part of its course is rather less than 3 feet in a mile. From the Satpuras numerous streams run down through the valley to the Narbada, having in the east, where the slope of the valley is rapid and direct, a very straight course and a length of only about 24 miles from the base of the hills to their confluence, while in the west they make a circular sweep and usually flow for about 40 miles through the plain. The principal of these streams are the Dudhi on the east, dividing Hoshangabad from Narsinghpur, the Tawa flowing through the Hoshangabad tahsil, the Ganjal separating Seoni-Malwa and Harda, and the Machak on the west. These bring down with them large quantities of sand in their floods, which are very high and rapid, and deposit it on the banks, causing deterioration in the soil to a considerable distance. Where two or three rivers escaping separately from the hills draw close together, the whole of the land enclosed between them is generally ,poor soil overrun with jungle. Notable instances of this are to be seen in the system of rivers which unite near Sohagpur, and those which join the Indra east of Seoni, in both of which cases a large belt of forest reaches nearly down to the Narbada. The plain portion of the District is covered by alluvial soil, consisting of a stiff reddish, yellowish, or brownish clay, with numerous interca- lated bands of sand and gravel. Kankar abounds throughout the deposit, and pisolitic iron granules are of frequent occurrence. The thickness of the alluvial deposits, as exposed along the banks of rivers, usually does not exceed a maximum of ioo :feet. In the west, rocks belonging to the transition system, consisting of quartzite, hornstone- breccia, and limestone, occur near Handia. The hilly tract to the south, embracing the Pachmarhi or Mahadeo hills, forms part of the great Gondwana system. At the base of it occurs the Talcher group, consisting mainly of greenish silt beds, breaking up into small splintering fragments and hence called needle shales, and green, brown, or whitish felspathic sandstones, in both of which pebbles and large boulders are often irregularly scattered. The Talchers are overlaid by the Damuda series, which is made up chiefly of thick-bedded, often coarse felspathic sandstones, with subordinate beds of carbonaceous shale and coal. The Government forests cover the hills on the southern border and also extend into the plain, especially along the banks of the rivers in the eastern tract. Almost pure teak forest is found on the alluvial flats along the rivers, and on red stony soil on the lower hill-sides. Mixed forest of sdj (Terminalia tomentosa), teak, dhaurd (Anogeissus latifolia), haldu (Adina cordifolia), tinsel (Ougeinia dalbergioides), and bijaskl