headship of his clan, and by
appointing him to the rank of 'commander of three thousand'. The
capital of Birsingh was Orchha. His successors are often spoken of as
Rajas of Tehri. The murder is fully described in _The Emperor Akbar_
by Count von Noer, translated by A. S. Beveridge, Calcutta, 1890,
vol. ii, pp. 384-404. Orchha is described _post_, Chapters 22,23.

CHAPTER 17

Basaltic Cappings--Interview with a Native Chief--A Singular
Character.

On the 5th[1] we came to the village of Seori. Soon after leaving
Dhamoni, we descended the northern face of the Vindhya range into the
plains of Bundelkhand. The face of this range overlooking the valley
of the Nerbudda to the south is, as I have before stated, a series of
mural precipices, like so many rounded bastions, the slight dip of
the strata being to the north. The northern face towards Bundelkhand,
on the contrary, here descends gradually, as the strata dip slightly
towards the north, and we pass down gently over their back. The
strata have, however, been a good deal broken, and the road was so
rugged that two of our carts broke down in descending. From the
descent over the northern face of the tableland into Bundelkhand to
the descent over the southern face into the valley of the Nerbudda
must be a distance of one hundred miles directly north and south.

The descent over the northern face is not everywhere so gradual; on
the contrary, there are but few places where it is at all feasible;
and some of the rivers of the tableland between Jubbulpore and
Mirzapore have a perpendicular fall of more than four hundred feet
over these mural precipices of the northern face of the Vindhya
range.[2] A man, if he have good nerve, may hang over the summits,
and suspend in his hand a plummet that shall reach the bottom.

I should mention that this tableland is not only intersected by
ranges, but everywhere studded with isolated hills rising suddenly
out of basins or valleys. These ranges and isolated hills are all of
the same sandstone formation, and capped with basalt, more or less
amygdaloidal. The valleys and cappings have often a substratum of
very compact basalt, which must evidently have flowed into them after
these islands were formed. The question is, how were these valleys
and basins scooped out? 'Time, time, time!' says Mr. Scrope; 'grant
me only time, and I can account for everything.' I think, however,
that I am right in considering the basaltic cappings o