4
this section of the road water is obtainable at a depth of from 25 to 30 feet
below the surface of the ground ; in some places, however, wells have to be sunk
much deeper. in many localities along the southern portion of the road the
people derive their water-supply from large tanks.
Soon after reaching the top of the Korai ghat the road enters on a belt
of latente which extends to about a mile south of Seonee, where the trap forma-
tion becomes visible. In this latente belt the water-supply is derived solely
from wells, and it is found abundant, even in the hot weather of ordinary years,
about 20 feet from the surface.
10. The station of Seonee is about midway between Nagpore and Jub-
bulpore ; it is situated in a wide open plateau at an elevation of 1,000 feet above
the Nagpore plain. The soil is for the most part " black soil " or regur, and water
is abundant at from 20 to 25 feet from the surface. The well water is generally
soft and sweet, but in some places it is slightly brackish as in the town of Seonee
itself. From Seonee to the Nerbudda the formation of the country traversed
by the road is throughout trap, and its aspect differs greatly from that of the
metamorphic formation south of the Seonee plateau : the hills in some parts
rise abruptly and form well defined straight ridges with flat table tops, the sur-
faces of which are thickly strewn with nodular trap ; in others the ground rises
with a gradual incline, expanding into extensive upland flats, covered with grass.
The valleys between the hills are often of considerable width, and, containing
a soil formed of a layer of rich black soil overlying a deep calcarious clay,
a combination that is extremely retentive of moisture, very fertile. One of the
most marked features of the trap formation results nom the appearance of the
rivers, instead of the dry sandy bed described as characteristics of the southern
section of the road, the rivers crossed in the northern section present long
stagnant reaches, separated by barriers of black basalt, some of which are several
hundred yards in extent, and through the crevices and indentations of which
the water trickles in divided streamlets. In this section of the road the pools of
the rivers form the chief sources of water-supply, the depth of the water from
the surface and the nature of the rock presenting in many places almost insupera-
ble obstacles to the formation of wells and as the streams are often several miles
apart there is a want of water in many localities in the hot weather.
11. The tract of country traversed by the road is sparsely populated, and
the villages are too small to supply sufficient labour to carry on the work required
along the road; it was therefore necessary to supplement local labour by impor-
tation from other parts. For the section south of Seonee labourers were
brought from the neighbourhood of Naepore, for the northern section coolies
were collected in the Myhere and Rewah territories.
12. The number of coolies at work along the whole length of road in
April was 8,394 (men and women) ; of these, 4,650, chiefly local labourers, were
employed on the southern section, from the Kanhan to the Wyngunga, a dis-
tance of 90 miles, and 3,744 on the northern section, from the Wyugunga to the
Nerbudda, a distance of GO miles. Of these latter 1,270 were Purdessie coolies from
Myhere and Rewah, the remainder were labourers drawn from villages near
the road. These labourers, Purdessie and local, worked in gangs each under
its own mate ; the gangs varied in strength from 30 to 200 persons, but in some
localities several gangs were employed on the same work, and the number of
persons, including women and children located on the same spot, would amount to
1,000 and upwards. A proportion of the local labourers returned to their
villages at night, but the gangs were for the most part hutted in the vicinity of the
tanks and streams, both for the convenience of the water-supply and in the
northern section for quarrying the basaltic metal from the river beds Their huts