904 Journal of a trip through Kunawur. QNov. 



thunder growled nearer and nearer, preceded by a gale of wind that 

 nearly tore my tent away. The rain came drifting up the valley, and 

 curiously, but very civilly, kept the opposite bank of the river to 

 where I was encamped, shrouding the mountains from my sight as it 

 passed along, without even giving me a sprinkling. 



The harvest had commenced at Dutnuggur as also at Kotgurh, and 

 the sickle was in the field. In some instances the reaper and the 

 plough were at work on the same ground, the one preparing the soil 

 for the second crop, almost as soon as the other could gather in the 

 first one. The first crop here consists, as in all these lower parts, of 

 barley, wheat, poppies, and some minor grains, which are ripe in the 

 months of May and June, when the fields are again made ready and 

 sown with the autumn crop. 



On the morning of the 21st, I resumed my pilgrimage by a good 

 broad road along the left bank of the river, and a walk of nine miles 

 brought me to Rampore, the capital of Bussaher. 



After leaving Dutnuggur, there is scarcely any cultivation on the 

 left bank of the Sutledge, owing to the rocks rising more abruptly from 

 the stream, between which and their own base there is sometimes 

 little more breadth than what is occupied by the road ; at Rampore, 

 although the town stands upon a broad flat at a turn of the river, 

 there is no cultivation, except a few gardens in which the burgut 

 again appears. 



This place is therefore strictly speaking a manufacturing town, 

 where those of its inhabitants who are not engaged in travelling with 

 grain into Ludak and Chinese Tartary, are employed in the manufac- 

 ture of pushmeena chuddurs, which are made from the under wool 

 of the Tartar goats, called by the people " pushm" whence the word 

 (( pushmeena". These chudders or shawls are sold according to 

 their quality and texture at from fourteen to twenty-five rupees each. 



Rampore is also the winter residence of the Rajah, and is selected 

 on account of the mildness of its climate at that season. To avoid 

 the great heat which it experiences in summer, he usually repairs with 

 his court to Sarahun, which from its greater elevation is free from 

 such intense heat as is felt at Rampore, whose elevation is only 

 3,400 feet above the sea, while Sarahun is rather more than 7,000 

 feet, or about the height of Simla. 



It is here that in the beginning of November the great fair is held, 

 which draws together the people from the upper hills to barter the 

 produce of those elevated tracts for that of the Jower hills and plains. 

 Here may be seen commingled in one grotesque assemblage the Tar- 



