|50 ^ STATISTICAL SKETCH 



are all the property of the Almora merchants, erected solely with a view to 

 th^ Tartar trade, two considerable fairs taking place here annually : as 

 these houses are only inhabited during two or three months in the year, they 

 must be considered rather as coming under the description of a temporary 

 Gunj, than of a town. From the great improvement in the Tartar trade, 

 within the last six years, the number of houses in this place has greatly 

 increased. 



Some notice of the size of the villages may now be taken. From the na- 

 ture of the arable land in this province, as already described, it rarely occurs 

 that such quantity exists in any one spot, as to require the labor of a 

 large resident population : the villages are consequently, with a few excep- 

 tions, universally small, and are, in fact, nothing more than detached hamlets, 

 scattered along the sides and bases of the mountains, wherever facilities for 

 cultivation are afforded. 



The total of inhabited villages and hamlets, aS will be seen by the accom- 

 panying statement (a) amounts to 9034, while the whole number of houses 

 contained in them, is only 44,569, giving an average of nearly five houses to 

 each village. The number of hamlets consisting of one house is very great, 

 while only 25 villages are to be found in the province, which exhibit more 

 than 50 houses, and the largest village exhibits 115 houses. On this head, I 

 regret that it is not in my power to offer more certain information than such 

 as is derived from an estimate of the average of inhabitants to each house 

 throughout the province. An attempt was made to ascertain the amount by 

 actual enumeration, and, as far as related to the towns, this measure was exe- 

 cuted without difficulty, but in the interior, obstacles occurred which rendered 

 the attempt nugatory. The revenue officers, from the extent of their jurisdic- 

 tions, and the smallness of their establishments, were necessitated to call in 

 the aid of the Kamins and Seyaiias, and the returns furnished through this 



