Page:Madras Journal of Literature and Science, series 1, volume 6 (1837).djvu/475

1837.] holy emblems are of divine origin, not having been made by human hands.

Viewing the valley from its centre, and contrasting its surface with the masses of mountain which surround it, it has the appearance of a plain gradually rising on all sides to the bases of the mountains, but a more careful examination points out a division of its surface into two separate elevations. These I shall call the higher and lower levels of the valley when describing the agricultural occupations of different seasons, as the general system and routine of husbandry varies on each. In the above division of the valley's surface, the hill sides under rough cultivation are not included. The lower level through which the two principal rivers (Bishomutti and Bagmutti) and their feeders run, is for the most part, nearly flat, having a very gradual descent from either side of the valley towards the main streams. Its soil is less clayey in general than that of the upper level, and from the greater facility of irrigation and certainty of flooding during the rains, its crops of rice are more productive, and its value for purchase and rent higher. The upper level, has for the most part, an elevation of from 30 to 80 feet above the lower. In some places the one gradually runs into the other, the transition being unaccompanied by any sudden or defined line, terraces of cultivation extending from the top of the upper level, down to the river edges. In other places the one is defined by perpendicular descents of 50 or more feet, along the basis of which the rivers sometimes have their course, while in a third place these precipitous banks point out the different levels far removed from the streams. The extreme height of the upper level is no where more than 100 feet above the lower; for the hill of Simbhunath although, at first sight belonging to this division* is really a spur from the neighbouring hill of Ek Changu. The hill near the temple of Pusputnath is elevated more than 100 feet above the Bagmutti, as this stream winds its course round three sides of it; but this hill may also with propriety be excluded from the valley levels and looked upon as a portion of a low range of hills stretching from north to south, and crossing the course of the Bagmutti. The Gankurun hill, which is a spur from Sheopooree, forms the northerly extremity of this partially defined range; on the south it vanishes gradually into the ordinary higher level of the valley lands.

To recapitulate summarily, we have in- the valley of Nepaul, an area of 325 square miles of arable land, forming a basin of uneven surface surrounded by a circular chain of mountains, varying in height from 500 to 2,000 feet above the plain, watered