Page:Madras Journal of Literature and Science, series 1, volume 6 (1837).djvu/474

446 west, where Indian corn and Murwa are occasionally cultivated; but the angle of these is so acute and the soil so unproductive as to render the husbandry of the rudest possible description and their produce too scanty to entitle them to be included in the regularly cultivated valley land. To speak generally, the mountain bases bounding the valley, too steep to admit of being cut into terraces, are excluded from the area above laid down; and with sufficient reason, as, in such lands, water cannot be retained for the growth of rice, and the quality of the soil is such as not to admit of the sowing of wheat, or any of the numerous and nutritious pulses, which abound in the more level lands. The crops of such places are limited to Indian corn, Murwa, and Phofur.

The general appearance of the valley, viewed from the summit of any of the surrounding mountains, is that of a series of hills with intervening valleys, irrigated plentifully by miniature canals, and traversed in a waving line from north-east to south-west by a moderately sized river, in which many of the stream- lets directly terminate, and in the direction of which all are bending their course. This appearance is not so striking in the drier months of the year, although sufficiently evident even then, as daring the rainy season, when the Bagmutti river by which the entire waters of the valley quit its boundaries, may be most aptly likened to a large venous trunk of an animal body, formed by innumerable smaller branches, each collecting at their source the fluid which animates as it runs, the bodies which surround it. From the cloud capped mountain peaks these little feeders take their rise, increasing as they rush down the precipitous sides, until, arrived at the more level base, they grow calmer and less fretful, permitting themselves to be diverted by innumerable channels into the fields below, and their speed to be wasted by diffusion over the terraced flats prepared for their welcome reception. Others of these feeders issue in considerable volume, and at once, from the foot of the hills; forming abundant and permanent springs of the clearest water. This occurs especially at the foot of Nagarjun, a high round-shaped hill forming the western boundary of the valley, covered by a thick stratum of soil from base to summit, and having in the neighbourhood of the spring no water course for the torrents along its face. At Nilkanth on the northern, and at Godawrey on the southern boundary, there are similar springs which continue to pour forth a steady stream throughout the year. Each of the springs is the favourite resting places of the respective presiding deities, whose images alone are now extant; but according to popular belief these