.206 Abode of Gods
heights rising steeply from the vast plains which lie mostly untra-
versed. This area has been described as tropical forest which has
.abundance of Sal tree. The ancient water courses have completely
•disappeared except for one of the greater rivers flowing down
from the mountains pursues its wide sandy course. The numerous
shapely cut ravines, however, show that in the rainy season there
are many fierce torrents and these gullies reveal the fact that the
ground consists of a vast collection of loose boulders with a thin
deposit of earth on the top, sufficient to support the growth of
the tropical forest and abundant foliage.
It is in fact a tract in which all the water sinks deep down,
till finally arrested by the bed of the hardy day, and reappears
further on, in the marshy Terai. The explanation of these pecu-
liar features is that probably in former ages there was a great sea
•covering what is now the plain of upper India, and washing the
foot of the Himalayas, and that its level has been ruined by
volcanic agency and the action of rivers carrying vast quantities
of soil from the mountains.
Big game
This area once offered opportunities of big game but now
with the denudation of forest wealth and frequent poaching the
forest animals are fast disappearing. This landlocked area has
.also the distinction of being one of the best regions in the world
for big game. Tigers and leopards are plentiful, and wild
elephants are also found. Pythons of great size are sometimes met
with, wrapped round forest trees, or lying gorged with a repast
of a deer swallowed whole, Corbett travelled extensively though
these thick jungles. Even today shikaris travel on the elephant
back because on foot one can be lost owing to the high growth
of vegetation around him.
Seat of ancient culture
Terai-Bhabar are not without historical interest, because in the
midst of forest recesses lie the ruins of ancient towns, villages
and of temples, Buddhist and Brahmanical-vestiges of the ancient
kingdom of Govisana, Brahmapur and Sirihpur which were once
visited by Huen Tsang in the seventh century A.D.
There are no pools or streams, except where one of the greater