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Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 18, p. 399.

A'ASIK DISTRICT 399 range separates Dindori from Nasik. On its peaks are the once celebrated fort of Ramsej and the Jain cave-temples of Chambhar Lena (see NASIK Town). The other important ranges are the Selbari and Dolbari, varying from 3,000 to 4,000 feet. All streams of any size to the south of the Chandor range are tributaries of the Godavari, the principal of these being the Darna, Kadva, Deo, and Maralgin. In the north of the watershed the Girna and its tributary the Mosam flow through fertile valleys into the Tapti. The District contains many hill forts, the scenes of engagements during the Maratha Wars. Nasik District is entirely occupied by the Deccan trap formation, which appears at the surface except where hidden under recent soil or concealed beneath some comparatively limited outcrops of pliocene or pleistocene gravels. The Deccan trap consists as usual of successive flows of basalt, with a slight dip towards the east, which once accumulated to a thickness of several thousand feet. Denudation acting uninter- ruptedly during a protracted series of geological ages has removed the greater part of this enormous mass ; and the latest flows are now reduced to small disconnected remnants forming the peaks of lofty hills, of which the summits indicate the former level of the land. Some of the basalt flows are of great thickness and vast horizontal extent, and the same flow can often be recognized in several of the detached hills which denudation has isolated from one another. Over most of the low-lying portions of the District the surface of the basalt has weathered into fertile black soil. The red laterite which caps so many flat-topped hills of the Sahyadri range farther south has been almost all worn away within Nasik District. The beds of clay and conglomerate that form high cliffs along the banks of the Godavari at Nandur Madmeshwar must have been deposited when the head- waters of the river flowing eastwards were situated to the west of their present sites. In these gravels have been found remains of hippopotamus, and the skull and several bones of a gigantic elephant (E. namadicus), a variety of E. antiquus which flourished in Europe towards the close of the pliocene and commencement of the pleistocene period. In the so-called older alluvium of the Narbada, which is probably pliocene in age, the remains of E. namadicus occur, together with those of E. (Stegodon) ganesa-insignis, a Siwalik species. A well near Bhadra Kali's temple in Nasik, and another near the Nasik jail, are remark- able for the presence of nitrates in large quantities. The botanical features differ but little from those of adjacent Dis- tricts. There is the same luxuriance of vegetation on the Western Ghats and the same bare country on the Deccan side. The mango and babul are the commonest trees. Along the roadsides grow the papal, banyan, japri, umbar, karanj, tamarind, mango, nim, jambul,