1848.] Route from Kdthmdndii to Darjeling, G41 



usually too dry for rice, but some can be well irrigated from the adja- 

 cent mountain, and then they will produce rice as well as Biasis. If 

 not constantly irrigable, wheat, barley, millets, pulse and cotton are 

 grown in them. The elevation of Tars is too inconsiderable to exempt 

 them from malaria, though they are usually rather more wholesome 

 than the lower and often swampy Biasis. Jarai tar is an extensive one, 

 being 1^ cos wide, and, as is said, several miles long, following the 

 river. The soil is red but fertile, and the whole of it is under culti- 

 vation. The village is large for the mountains, and has some 50 to 60 

 houses, some of which are pakka, as a caravansery here called Dharam- 

 sala or Powa, and one or two more. The site of the village is higher 

 than the rest of the Tar. The Pinus longifolia abounds in Jarai tar and 

 peacocks are very numerous. Also jungle fowl* and Kaliches (Gallo- 

 phasis melanoleucos). 



16th Stage to PdkJiaribds, South East, 2 J cos. 

 Proceeding half a cos you come to the ferry of the Arun, which is a 

 large river rising in Bhot, passing the Himachal above Hathia, and 

 forming the main branch of the great Cosi. It is also the conterminal 

 limit of Kirant and Limbuan. It is passed at Liguaghat by boat, and 

 is there very rapid and deep, and some 30 to 40 yards wide. Thence 

 down the left bank of the Arun for 1 cos to Mangma, a village inhabit- 

 ed by Kirantis and Limbus, being on the common frontier of both tribes. 

 Thence quitting the Arun you reach the Mangma Khola in ^ cos, and 

 crossing it proceed half a cos along the mountain side (manjh) to Ghorli 

 Kharak, which is the name of a small village, and also of a celebrated 

 iron mine, the workers of which dwell above the line of road. A vast 

 quantity of fine iron is procured. This mine, like all others in Nepal, 



cause must here have been modified in its action, as indeed is perpetually the 

 case in different localities. The high and low levels of Tar and Biasi, I consider 

 to represent the pristine and present beds of the rivers, whose constant erosion has 

 during ages created this difference of level, often amounting to 150 or 200 feet, 

 The low level of the valley of Nepal I consider to have been suddenly scooped out 

 when the waters of the pristine lake (for such the valley was) escaped in one tre- 

 mendous rush under the action of an earthquake, which rent the containing rock 

 and let off the waters at once. — (See accompanying sketch.) 



* From these indications, which are altogether exceptional as regards the moun- 

 tains, it may be confidently stated that Jarai tar is not more than 1500 feet above 

 the sea. 



4 r 2 



