210 A CONTRIBUTION TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF NEPAL. 



Thankot there is a good driving road alonof the valley for seven 

 miles to Kathmandu. About a mile north of the city we enter 

 the Residency grounds, and here we will rest after our travels 

 and make a brief survey of the Nepal Valley. 



The Valley of Nepal has been compared in shape to an oval 

 and to a lozenge ; but it is very irregular in form, as the hills 

 which surround it send down short spurs into its open part in 

 various directions, so that it may be described as consisting of 

 a long central part lying nearly east and west, with many 

 lateral ofF-shoots from this, which run up to the base of the 

 limiting hills between the spurs above-mentioned. Its greatest 

 length is about twenty miles, and its greatest breadth, from 

 south to north, about fifteen miles ; but, owing to its peculiar 

 shape, the total area of tolerably level ground found in the 

 valley is probably under 200 square miles. Although by the 

 road we traversed, Kathmandu is over ninety miles from 

 Segowli, yet the valley is distant not more than thirty miles 

 from the plains in a direct line. The position of Kathmanda 

 is given as in Lat. 27^ 42' N., and Long. 85" 36' E. Its eleva- 

 tion above the sea is about 4,500 feet. 



The prominent peaks of the hills round the valley ai'e Devikot, 

 or Mahadeo Pokhri to the east, Sheopuri and Kakani on the 

 northern side, Nagarjun on the north-west, Chandragiri, Champa 

 Devi, and Pharphing on the west and south-west, and Phul- 

 chank on the south-east. The highest of these is Phulchank, 

 9,720 feet, and the others vary from about 6,000 to a little over 

 7,500 feet. 



The Nepal Valley is well watered, but all its streams are of 

 small size, as their watershed is strictly confined to the hills 

 immediately surrounding the valley. Many of the streams 

 are small mountain torrents, often dried up in the hot weather, 

 which flow down regular alluvial fans, in the jaws of the small 

 ravines or hollows of the hill sides. The two principal streams 

 are the Bagmati and the Bishnumati. The Bishnumati rises 

 from the south side of Sheopuri, and flowing southwards passes 

 along the west face of Kathmandu and joins the Bagmati a 

 little south of the city. The stream is always shallow, and its 

 channel, though tolerably wide, is for the most part hardly 

 lower than the adjoining cultivated land. 



The Bagmati has its origin on the northern side of the 

 Sheopuri Peak. At the north base of Sheopuri it winds to the 

 east, and then flowing southwards through a gorge in the hills, 

 it enters the valley at about the middle of its northern side. 

 The general direction of the Bagmati through the valley is to 

 the south, and after passing through a narrow rocky cleft at 

 Pashpatiuath it receives the waters of numerous small streams, 



