228 Notes on Eastern Thibet. [No. 3, 



bowls are the only good manufactures, neither is their agricultural 

 produce remarkable. Thibet, being almost all covered with moun- 

 tains and intersected by impetuous torrents, furnishes its inhabitants 

 with but little soil suited for cultivation, the valleys alone can be 

 sowed with any prospect of reaping a harvest." When the Yaroo 

 does overflow its banks, the sediment it leaves, is fertilizing. The 

 Yaroo soil deposit is generally light and sandy. 



Three feet of digging brings you to the water at Digarchi which 

 stands in the flat and low Delta of the Painom and Yaroo rivers. 

 20 feet is required at Kambajong.* 



Many Thibetans believe that the Painom rises in Sikim, but its 

 sources are no doubt, as given by Turner, in the vicinity of the 

 Eamchoo Lakes, north of Phari. A horse Dak is four days from Digar- 

 chi to Lassa, a boat by the Yaroo takes 12 days to the disembarking 

 place, nearest to Lassa. It is 12 days' journey to the Salt Lakes 

 from Digarchi, due north. 



Crops, Rotation of, 8fc. 



The number of crops is very limited ; wheat, barley, buckwheat, 

 peas, turnips and a little mustard, comprise the whole. There is 

 no regular rotation observed. As in India with all crops, so it is 

 in Thibet. Wheat is grown for generations in the same ground 

 varied, in some places, by barley or buckwheat ; about three times as 

 much barley being grown as wheat. All the suttoo eaten with tea 

 is roasted barley, and this may be considered as the staple article 

 of food for all travellers. See M. Hue passim. 



At Digarchi, Giangtchi, and generally in the Province of Chang 

 or Tsang, grain is more plentiful than in the neighbouring province 

 of U ; in the former 10 to 15 seers, (20 to 30 lbs.,) of wheaten flour 

 per Company's Eupee is reckoned cheap, and in the latter about 

 half the quantity is so. 



The dung of animals is so much in request for fuel, that scarcely 

 any is used for manure, nor is there any spare fodder or other vege- 

 table matter available for composts. Human ordure and ashes are 

 therefore the principal manures in use ; both are carefully preserved, 

 and very valuable. In the towns the contents of public privies are 

 a source of revenue to the Government, and lodging-houses have 



* Kambajong a Police Station in Dingchaui. See Hooker's Himalayan Journals 

 and Map. 



