A CONTRIBUTION TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF NEPAL. 211 



and runs along the south side of Kathmandu, between tliafc city 

 and Patan, to the point where the Bishuumati joins it. Opposite 

 Kathmandu the stream has a very wide channel, but even 

 during the rains it can there be vi^aded knee-deep. South of 

 Kathmandu, the Bagmati, having increased to a respectable 

 stream, flows to the south-west, and at Choubal passes by a 

 narrow rocky gorge through the point of the Kirtipur Ridcre 

 —a spur which runs down from Chandragiri. Beyond Choubal 

 the stream is confined by high banks, and at the south-west 

 corner of the valley it makes its exit through a rock-- o-or^e 

 carrying the whole drainage of the Nepal Valley. -^ *= ° 



The surface of the valley is by no means leve"), and all over 

 the country we find flat uplands, called Tar, which are separat- 

 ed m various directions by broad flat valleys, of which the 

 local name is Khola. The sides of the Tars are often precipi- 

 tous, but are commonly artificially terraced for cultivation ; the 

 difference in elevation between the uplands and hollows varies 

 from about 30 to 100 feet. 



Through every khola there flows a small stream, but perhaps 

 the greaternumber of these are dried up in the hot weather. 

 Beds of an impure peat frequently form a part of the Tars, 

 and a layer of fine bluish-grey clay occurs extensively in them. 

 This stiff clay, being almost impermeable to water, it results 

 that, during the rains, the water absorbed by the surface of 

 the uplands sinks as far as the clay stratum, and there, at the 

 side of the Tar, trickles out and runs down to the khola below. 

 After heavy rain the water pours out of the Tar cliffs, in some 

 parts, in small spouts ; and generally speaking, the sides of 

 the Tars are very damp, and small swampy spots are not 

 unfrequent at their base, here and there, throughout the 

 valley. 



Scattered over the central part of the valley are a number 

 of small eminences thickly covered with tree forest. These 

 wooded knolls are often formed of isolated masses of rock 

 cropping up through the alhivial deposits; but in other cases 

 they are simply small isolated Tars covered with trees. Of 

 these little hills there are about a dozen principal ones, here- 

 after often alluded to as the '' Central Woods" ; on the summit 

 of nearly every one of them there is a temple. The Resi- 

 dency ground, on an upland, with a fine belt of Finus longifolia 

 and other trees, is included in the " Central Woods^^ ; of the 

 others it will suffice to enumerate Simbunath, Rani Jani^al 

 Pashpati, Nil Barahi, Sanku, and Champagaon. ^^ ' 



The native history of Nepal records that the valley was once 

 a lake; and every European writer on the country, from 

 Father Giuseppe to Dr. Wright, has more or less confidently 



