On the east the frontier is marked by the Wardha
river down to its confluence with the Penganga, and on the south by
the Penganga for about two-thirds of the frontier's length. The tract
is half surrounded on the east, north and north-west by the Central
Provinces, with which it is amalgamated. In addition to the Melghat
mountain tract which walls it in on the north, Berar is divided into
two sections, the Payanghat or lowland country, bounded on the north
by the Gawilgarh hills, and on the south by the outer scarps of the
Ajanta range, and the Balaghat or upland country above the Ajanta
ridge, sloping down southwards beyond the ghats or passes which lead
up to it. The Payanghat is a wide valley running up eastward between
this ridge and the Gawilgarh hills, varying in breadth from 40 to 50
m., and broader towards the end than at its mouth. It contains all the
best land in Berar; it is full of deep, rich, black alluvial soil, of
almost inexhaustible fertility, and it undulates sufficiently to
maintain a natural system of drainage, but there is nothing
picturesque about this broad strip of champaign country. The upland
tract, on the contrary, is diversified with low-lying plains, high
plateaus, fertile bottoms and rocky wastes, and is rendered
picturesque by rivers and groves.

_Natural Features_.--The provinces may be divided into two tracts of
upland and three of plain, consisting of the Vindhya and Satpura
plateaus, and the Berar, Nagpur and Chhattisgarh plains. To the north
the districts of Saugor and Damoh form the southern boundary of the
Vindhyan escarpment. In this region the sandstone rocks are generally
overlaid with heavy black soil formed from the decaying trap, which is
principally devoted to the cultivation of the spring crops, wheat and
grain, while rice and hill millets are sown in the lighter and more
sandy soils. Next, the long and narrow valley of the Nerbudda from
Jubbulpore to Hoshangabad is formed of deep alluvial deposits of
extreme richness and excellently suited to the growth of wheat. To the
south of the Nerbudda the Satpura range stretches across the province,
containing the greater part of five districts, its crystalline and
sandstone rocks rising in places through the superficial stratum of
trap, and with large areas of shallow stony land still covered to a
great extent with forest interspersed by black-soil valleys of great