GREAT TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 51 



the 12th December 1841. The people of Hundes (called Hunias) 

 are of Tartar origin, having the well-known leading ethnological 

 characteristics of that race. They own large flocks of big, long- 

 fleeced sheep, and herds of cattle and Tibetan goats, as well as a 

 few yaks. There are five principal passes leading from Hundes into 

 British territory, and the traffic over them is carried on between the 

 15th Jnne and the 15th October. The passes, however, are not 

 declared open till the authorities have satisfied themselves as to the 

 absence of epidemics in the Ghats, the effect of small pox, &c. on 

 some occasions among a people so indifferent to cleanliness having 

 been terrible. Shawl wool is taken in large quantities to Amritsar 

 and other places in the Punjab, while sheep's wool is also largely 

 exported to the Himalayas, where it is made up into blankets and 

 serges. 



In the following year Mr. T. Kinney was despatched up the 

 Bhagirathi valley to supplement Mr. Eyall's observations in the 

 direction of the Mlang valley and the Tsaprang district of Hundes. 

 The Bhagirathi forms the westernmost source of the Ganges, and 

 the gorge through which the Nilang valley is entered is terrific in 

 aspect; snowy peaks, from 20,000 to 21,000 feet in height, 

 towering overhead, while the stream flows 10,000 feet below, walled 

 in by sheer precipices sometimes 3,000 feet in height. The descrip- 

 tion given by Captain Hodgson in 1817* fully bears out Mr. Kinney's 

 more recent account. Owing to the Tibetan frontier officials having 

 been sharply censured by the Governor of Gartok (who lias supreme 

 authority over the province of Hundes) for allowing Mr. Byall to 

 cross the frontier the year before, Mr. Kinney was unable to do 

 much more than fix some of the Tibetan peaks from the crest of 

 the watershed, some 19,000 feet in height. The cold was intense 

 throughout, and as the party were forced to encamp -at least 

 4,000 feet below, much time was spent in travelling to and fro, and 

 the out-turn of work not so great as it would have been under 

 favourable circumstances. 



The secondary triangulation in the Assam valley was carried on 

 by Lieutenant Harman, in 1876-77, with his customary energy, 

 notwithstanding the unfavourable weather, incessant rains flooding 

 the nullahs and turning the forest paths into streams of mud and 

 water, which brought out myriads of leeches, to the great discomfort 

 of the party. Huge india-rubber trees had often to be felled, though 



* See Asiatic Researches, Vol. XIII. 



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