Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/339

 BETUL.

329

of the District, with the sacred town of Multai at lost in the wild

it is

from

low country

the

ridges of

successive soil

on the tops of the

of the land

is

barren

highest point,

till

line of

beyond.

and

rock,

trap

its

mountains which parts Betul Fruitful valleys lie between the

and broken

in

a

the shallow

few places

But most has been turned to account. trees rarely occur ; and the southern face of

hills

Above the town of Betul extends a poor land, thinly inhabited and meagrely cultivated, ending in the main chain of the Satpura Hills, beyond which a considerable fall takes place in the general level of the country. To the north lies an irregular the District

is

bare and desolate.

tract of

plain of sandstone formation, well

appearance of a vast park

wooded, and presenting in places the soil is for the most part unfit for the

but the



On

plough, and barely rewards the labours of the few cultivators. e.xtreme north, the District

sheer out of the great plain portion of this region

is

a

wholly by Gonds and Kurkus.

wide

tracts of waste land,

It

has but few hamlets, scattered over

and seen from some neighbouring

appears a vast unbroken wilderness.

and the Bel

rise in

the

bounded by a line of mountains rising of the Narbada (Nerbudda). The western mass of hill and jungle, inhabited almost is

Besides the Tapti, the

height,

the high plateau of Multai, which thus sends

waters both to the western and eastern coasts.

The Tawa

it

Wardha its

flows for a

short distance only through the north-east corner of the District.

The

Machna, the Sampna, and the Moran are the only other rivers of any size but throughout Betiil, and especially among the trap rocks, a number of small streams retain water in places all the year round. Some use is made of them for irrigation. Outcrops of coal occur at several places but the seams are not of sufficient thickness to render it probable that they can be profitably mined. Forests cover a



Two

large extent of country.

of the best timber-bearing tracts, with a

287 square miles, have been reserved by the Government first-class reserves.’ They contain abundance of young teak, some

total area of

as

‘

magnificent sdj (Pentaptera glabra),

(Dalbergia timber. miles.

latifolia),

kawd

sdiai (Boswellia

The second-class The Betul forests

(Pentaptera arjuna), shishatn

thurifera),

and other excellent

reserved State forests extend over 852 square yielded in 1880-81 a revenue to

Government

of ;;^4 i 86, as against an expenditure of .;!^i398. History In early times, Betul formed the centre of the Gond kingdom of Kherla ; but the history of this dynasty is comprised in.

—

an occasional mention of Ferishta.

From him we

learn that in the

15th century a contest was carried on with varying success between the

Gond

princes of Kherla

and the kings of Malwa.

Gauli power supplanted the ancient

Gond

chiefs,

Later,

it is

said, a

but again yielded to

an uprising of the aborigines. Be this as it may, about 1700, Raja Bakht Buland, by race a Gond, but a convert to the religion of Islam,