At the top of
these hills--called in India, ghauts--lay the plateau of the Deccan,
sloping gradually away to the Ganges, hundreds of miles to the east.
"Are we going to climb up to top of them mountains, your honor?"
"No, Tim, fortunately for our horses. We shall skirt their foot, for a
hundred and fifty miles, till we get behind Gheriah."
"You wouldn't think that a horse could climb them," Tim said. "They
look as steep as the side of a house."
"In many places they are, Tim, but you see there are breaks in them.
At some points, either from the force of streams, or from the weather,
the rocks have crumbled away; and the great slopes, which everywhere
extend halfway up, reach the top. Zigzag paths are cut in these, which
can be travelled by horses and pack animals.
"There must be quantities of game," Charlie said to the leader of the
escort, "on the mountain sides."
"Quantities?" the Mahratta said. "Tigers and bears swarm there, and
are such a scourge that there are no villages within miles of the foot
of the hills. Even on the plateau above, the villages are few and
scarce near the edge, so great is the damage done by wild beasts.
"But that is not all. There are numerous bands of Dacoits, who set the
authority of the peishwar at defiance, plunder travellers and
merchants going up and down, make raids into the Deccan, and plunder
the low land nearly up to the gates of Bombay.
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