1118 A cursory Notice of Nay akote. [No. 107. 



reach the size of a village, and the dwellings stand for the most part 

 single and scanty. The whole district is said to contain 700 houses, 

 but I doubt it, even allowing 100 or 150 houses to the town ; and half 

 the number in either case would probably be nearer the mark. 



The soil of Nay akote contains a juster proportion of clay to silex 

 and calx than the soil of the greater valley of Nepal Proper, which 

 is derived principally from the debris of grantiic formations; and 

 hence we obtain an explanation of the reputed eminent fertility of the 

 former, and more, surely, of its celebrated potteries. The heights 

 around Nayakote are of inferior size, consisting on the northern side es- 

 pecially, mostly of iron clay, of very deep red tint ; and the superficial 

 soil of the Tars is for the most part the same, the substratum being 

 however, usually gravel, whence the dryness of their soil is increased. 



Tho soil of the Byasis also is clayey, but untinted luteous white, and 

 where unmixed with silex or other ingredients, even more tenacious than 

 the red clay. The pottery clays are exclusively of the latter sort. Mica, 

 so common in the great valley of Nepal, is here never witnessed. The 

 high temperature of Nayakote admits of most of the trees, forest and 

 fruit, as well as of the superior Cerealia of north Behar and the Tarai 

 being cultivated with success, though they cannot be raised in the 

 great valley. Nayakote has besides distinguished products of its own, 

 which are not found, or not found so good, in the plains of Behar ; 

 these are the orange and the pine-apple. The forest trees peculiar to 

 the district, not found in the great valley, and identifying this of Naya- 

 kote with the Tarai and plains, are the Saul (Shorea robusta), Burr 

 and Pipal (Ficus Indica et Religiosa), Semal, or cotton tree, Pras, 

 Neem, and Mohwa. The Pinus longifola, and other mountain growths, 

 are frequently found mixed with these on the declivities around. 



The chief of the fruit trees is the mangoe of various sorts, many 

 exotic and superior, though the celebrated Bombay mangoe is apt to 

 lose its flavour by swelling into undue and dropsical dimensions ; the 

 tamarind, the Bair, the jack fruit or Bel, the Kathur, the Badhur, 

 the Pukri, the guava, the custard-apple, or Sharifa, and, in a word, all 

 the ordinary fruit trees of India, none of which, it should be added, 

 flourish in the larger valley. To the above we must subjoin the 

 following exotics grown in the gardens of Khinchat, belonging to the 

 government. Naril, or cocoanut, Supari, or betel vine, pear, apple, 



