OP KAMAON. 143 



way, consisting of slight ladders of wood two feet in breadth, is sus- 

 pended parallel to the cables by ropes of about three feet in length. 

 By this arrangement, the horizontal cables form a balustrade to sup- 

 port the passenger, while reaching from step to step of the ladders. To 

 make the Jhula practicable for goats and sheep, the interstices of the lad- 

 ders are sometimes closed up with twigs laid close to each other. A con- 

 struction of this kind necessarily, requires a high bank on both sides, and 

 where this evident advantage may be wanting, the deficiency of height is 

 supplied by a wooden gallows, erected on the two banks over which the ends 

 of the cables are passed. The fourth and most simple bridge consists merely 

 of a single cable stretched across the stream, to which is suspended a basket 

 traversing on a wooden ring, the passenger or baggage being placed in this 

 basket, it is drawn across by a man on the opposite side by means of a rope 

 attached to the bottom : this is termed a Chinlca.* The two last descriptions 

 of bridge are constructed at a very trifling expense, as the ropes used are 

 made of a silky species of grass, which is produced in abundance in every part 

 of the province. Iron chain" bridges, as described in Turner's Thibet, would 

 appear to have been used in this province at a remote period, but no remains 

 of them now exist. A considerable number of bridges (Sangas) have been 

 erected under the British government, and many, from the want of durability 

 in the timbers, have had to be renewed after three or four years, so that it 

 will no doubt be eventually found advantageous to resort to the plan of iron 

 chain bridges. 



The constant succession of falls and rapids, joined to the rocky nature of 

 their beds, render the hill rivers impracticable for boats at any season, while, 

 during the rains, a further obstacle is presented in the extreme impetuosity 



* Meaning, it is supposed, temporary, being derived from the Sanskrit term Kshanika. 



