178 STATISTICAL SKETCH • . 



measure under the Gorkha administration, when the country was regularly 

 assessed and settled, though in many of the subdivisions, the former arbitrary 

 mode was continued, the villages of a pergimna being frequently classed 

 into Pattis, according to the caste of the owners, without reference to actual 

 situation. It may be here noticed, that the word pergunna was not in use 

 here, the terms being Gerkha, Pal, Row, Patti, Kote, Al, ^c. 



The mode of calculation in use throughout the hilh is, by the estimated 

 quantity of grain which the land will require to sow it. The adoption of 

 so uncertain a standard is doubtless to be ascribed to the nature of the 

 arable lands, the actual measurement of which would have required greater 

 perseverance and science than the natives of this province ever possessed. 

 The denominations by which land is computed in Kamaon are extremely 

 numerous, and vary in different parts, and it may therefore be presumed, that 

 they were established at a remote period, when the country was divided into 

 several petty independant principalities. In calculating the extent of villages, 

 only such lands as had been rendered capable of cultivation by the operation 

 already described, were taken into consideration. These have been gradually 

 augmenting, and as no revised survey has recently been made, the existing 

 records by no means correspond with the actual quantity of arable land in 

 each villao;e. 



"O^ 



The most common denomination is the Bisi, which has now been 

 adopted as a general standard. The regular Bisi ought, as its name 

 implies, to contain land requiring twenty Nalis of seed ; its actual extent, 

 therefore, varies according to the quality of soil, as the grain is sown much 

 wider in poor lands near the summit, than in rich lands at the base of the 

 mountains. With every allowance of this kind, villages are invariably 

 found far to exceed their nominal ruhha, when computed by this standard. 

 It also varies in the same district, a portion of the land being calculated by 



