914 Kummaon and Rohilcund Turaee. [No. 155. 



at the present period assumed. I trust that the force of this argument 

 will not be weakened by its not being original. The improvement of 

 the forest-tract can be effected by the cutting of broad roads through 

 it to the several points of access to the hills, and by extension of the 

 Puharree clearings at its northern edge by a better and more economical 

 distribution of the available means of irrigation. But, it still remains a 

 matter for science to determine, whether except in the case of large 

 rivers, (for instance the Ramgunga and Kosillah,) which on account of 

 their volume and force escape absorption into the gravel, any canals 

 can be taken off from common streams, at their exit from the mountains, 

 and carried continuously through the forest. If they can, I would be 

 content to sacrifice some portion of the partial cultivation carried on by 

 the Hillmen at the immediate foot of the hills, by means of their numer- 

 ous separate water-courses. If they cannot be made so as to bring a 

 large and continuous portion of the forest and prairie into cultivation, 

 I am hardly prepared to recommend much interference with the pre- 

 sent system of irrigation in the Upper Bhabur, however wasteful, in the 

 mere attempt to prolong a mile or two further the Puharree cultiva- 

 tion, and to add to the number of villages, paying almost nothing to 

 the State, while they decrease the pasture grounds required by the 

 herdsmen, both of the plains and the hills, at that very portion of the 

 forest where the means of supplying water to the cattle alone exists.* 

 As, however, the subject of the Kumaon Bhabur as distinct from the 

 Rohilcund Terrai will form the subject of a separate report in the 

 ordinary course of my official duties, and, as the upper tract is quite 

 prosperous enough not to require any immediate special remedies, I 

 here drop my pen. 



Almorah, 9th October, 1844. J. H. Batten, 



Senior Assistant Commissioner, Kumaon Proper. 



* The forest here alluded to, is almost utterly useless for timber, though its pasture 

 grounds are admirable. All the valuable timber is now confined to the foot of the hills 

 and to the lower range, and the sissoo islands in the river beds. This is a fact little 

 known, but quite true. 



