f these ranges
and isolated hills to have once formed part of continued flat beds of
great lakes. The flat parallel planes of these cappings,
corresponding with each other, however distantly separated the hills
they cover may be, would seem to indicate that they could not all
have been subject to the convulsions of nature by which the whole
substrata were upheaved above the ocean. I am disposed to think that
such islands and ranges of the sandstone were formed before the
deposit of the basalt, and that the form of the surface is now
returning to what it then was, by the gradual decomposition and
wearing away of the latter rock. Much, however, may be said on both
sides of this, as of every other question. After descending from the
sandstone of the Vindhya[3] range into Bundelkhand, we pass over
basalt and basaltic soil, reposing immediately on syenitic granite,
with here and there beds and veins of pure feldspar, hornblende, and
quartz.

Takht Singh, the younger brother of Arjun Singh, the Raja of
Shahgarh,[4] came out several miles to meet me on his elephant.
Finding me on horseback, he got off from his elephant, and mounted
his horse, and we rode on till we met the Raja himself, about a mile
from our tents. He was on horseback, with a large and splendidly
dressed train of followers, all mounted on fine sleek horses, bred in
the Raja's own stables. He was mounted on a snow-white steed of his
own breeding (and I have rarely seen a finer animal), and dressed in
a light suit of silver brocade made to represent the scales of steel
armour, surmounted by a gold turban. Takht Singh was more plainly
dressed, but is a much finer and more intelligent-looking man. Having
escorted us to our tents, they took their leave, and returned to
their own, which were pitched on a rising ground on the other side of
a small stream, half a mile distant. Takht Singh resides here in a
very pretty fortified castle on an eminence. It is a square building,
with a round bastion at each corner, and one on each face, rising
into towers above the walls.

A little after midday the Raja and his brother came to pay us a
visit; and about four o'clock I went to return it, accompanied by
Lieutenant Thomas. As usual, he had a nautch (dance) upon carpets,
spread upon the sward under awnings in front of the pavilion in which
we were received. While the women were dancing and singing, a very
fine panther was brought in to be shown to us. He had been caught,
f