THE KAXGKA VALLEY. 299 



Turning the Jowala Mookee range at Ranee-ke-Tal, we proceed 

 by an undulating, billy, but good road to Kote Kangra, distant 

 about fifteen miles. The town and far-famed fort of Kangra are 

 situated on a small range of hills of conglomerate which rises to a 

 height of some six hundred feet above the river Ban Gunga. The 

 conglomerate dips under an angle of 15° to the east of north, and 

 belongs to the medial-tertiary series. 



The Kangra valley is about fifty miles long and ten miles broad, 

 and divided into three parts : the western, or Valley of Rilloo ; 

 middle, Kangra ; and the eastern, or Pahlum, separated from each 

 other by spurs of mountains, with highly undulated, and richly 

 cultivated plains dipping to the south and west, and with fine 

 natural irrigation derived from innumerable streams which come 

 from the Chumba range of mountains, which forms its northern 

 bouudary. This lovely valley, as, properly speaking, it forms but 

 one valley, is admirably adapted for Tea cultivation, nearly 

 throughout its length and breadth. At Holta there is a 

 magnificent and gently inclined plane lying waste, and well 

 adapted for Tea cultivation, and commanded by two considerable 

 rivers, the Cura and the NiguL At Xugrotah and JBobaruah, in 

 the eastern part of the valley, two small Tea nurseries have been 

 formed, and though the seedling plants were only planted two 

 years ago, and not a particle of manure given to them, they are 

 now between four and five feet in height, showing how admirably 

 this valley is adapted to this purpose. Irrigation, too, to any 

 extent is procurable. 



Strewed over the valley, particularly the eastern portion which 

 is highly terraced, vast boulders of granite occur, some of them 

 upwards of a hundred feet in diameter, of a greyish white colour, 

 and containing large crystals of white felspar, many of them six 

 inches in length. This mineral appears, owing to the potash 

 which it contains, to be easily decomposed, and possibly to the 

 presence of this alkali the richness of the soil is in a great measure 

 owing. The abundance of these boulders everywhere throughout 

 this valley is highly characteristic. Numbers of streams are to be 

 met with coming from the Chumba range, from which artificial 

 irrigation-canals have been made by the inhabitants to irrigate 

 their fields, and, though the fall is very great, the water rushing 

 with the force of a mountain torrent, and though these canals have 

 been running for more than one hundred and fifty years,* yet, 



* See Barnes on the system of irrigation prevailing throughout the 

 Kangra valley. 



