which the Tapti is said to take its rise; hence the reputed sanctity of the spot, and the accumulation of temples in its honour. This district suffered very severely from the famine of 1896–1897, in 1897 the death-rate being as high as 73 per 1000. It suffered again in 1900, when in May the number of persons relieved rose to one-third of the total population. In 1901 the population was 285,363, showing a decrease of 12% in the decade, due to the results of famine. In 1901 the population of the town was 4,739. The administrative headquarters of the district were transferred to the town of Badnur, 3 miles north. At the beginning of the 20th century, the principal crops in the district were wheat, soybean, millet, other food-grains, pulse, oil-seeds, and a little sugar-cane and cotton. Geography The mean elevation above the sea is about 2000 ft. The country is essentially a highland tract, divided naturally into three distinct portions, differing in their superficial aspects, the character of their soil and their geological formation. The northern part of the district forms an irregular plain of the sandstone formation. It is a well-wooded tract, but it has a very sparse population and little cultivated land. In the extreme north a line of hills rises abruptly out of the great plain of the Narmada valley. The central tract alone possesses a rich soil, well watered by the river Machna and Sapna dam, almost entirely cultivated and studded with villages. To the south lies a rolling plateau of basaltic formation (with the sacred town of Multai, and the springs of the Tapti River at its highest point), extending over the whole of the southern face of the district, and finally merging into the wild and broken line of the Ghats, which lead down to the plains. This tract consists of a succession of stony ridges of trap rock, enclosing valleys or basins of fertile soil, to which cultivation is for the most part confined, except where the shallow soil on the tops of the hills has been turned to account. The climate of Betul is fairly healthy. Its height above the plains and the neighbourhood of extensive forests moderate the heat, and render the temperature pleasant throughout the greater part of the year. During the cold season the thermometer at night falls below the freezing point; little or no hot wind is