Page:Aurangzíb and the Decay of the Mughal Empire.djvu/158

Rh insulated hills, form natural fortresses, where the only labour required is to get access to the level space, which generally lies on the summit. Various princes at different times have profited by these positions. They have cut flights of steps or winding roads up the rocks, fortified the entrance with a succession of gateways, and erected towers to command the approaches; and then studded the whole region about the Gháts and their branches with forts, which, but for frequent experience, would be deemed impregnable.

Between the Gháts and the sea lies the narrow strip of rugged country called the Konkan. Here deep valleys and torrent-beds lead from the rocks and forests of the mountain ridge to the fertile plains of the humid tract near the sea, where the torrents merge in sandy crooks among thickets of mangroves.

'The broken and contorted land, writhing from the rugged and indented sea-margin, shoots aloft in steep and terrific cliffs and craggy summits, whose beauty and majesty must be seen to be understood. Magnificent forests clothe these elevations, and spread far down into the wild country below, and extend their mysterious and treacherous shade for many a mile along the table-land above. Impetuous torrents leap from the mountain sides, rive, in their headlong career sea-ward, the uneven and craggy surface of the coastland; and the hollow nullas of the dry season are, on the approach of rain, transformed in a few hours into deep, furious, and impassable cataracts. The thunderstorms of those regions are terrific: the deluges of rain, violent, copious, and frequent, beyond all comparison elsewhere in India. Roads throughout the greater part of the country