192 s STATISTICAL SKETCH 



In the sale of metals, cotton, &c. the products of the country, the 

 weight is commonly ascertained by the steel-yard. In this instrument the 

 weight is fixed, and the object to be weighed, is moved along the lever, which 

 is divided into puis and pice. 



3 Pice making 1 Pul, and 

 20 Puis making 1 Dam. 



This latter forms the maximum weight of the steel-yard, and is equal to about 

 100 Furruckabad rupees. In measuring cloth, the cubit is generally adopted. 

 At Almora and Srinagar, the weights and measures of the plains, on a 

 reduced scale, were also in use. These have now been fixed at a regulated 

 standard, the seer weighing 84 Furruckabad milled rupees, and the guj, equal 

 to the English yard. 



The manufactures in these hills are so trifling, as scarcely to deserve par- 

 ticular mention. The principal are blankets, made in the northern pergun- 

 nas, pankhis, a coarse woolen camblet, also made there, and in Bhote, ban- 

 gelas, a hempen cloth, manufactured in the midland parts of Gerhwaly where 

 it forms the principal materials for clothes to the inhabitants during the hot 

 season. Wooden vessels, of various forms and shap^, and made from several spe- 

 cies of wood. Coarse cotton cloth is weaved in small quantities. Mats and 

 baskets, of all kinds, are prepared from the small male bamboo, in a very neat 

 style. The artisans universally exhibit great want of neatness and finish in 

 the execution of their work, more particularly the smiths in iron and copper 

 utensils which are invariably rough and ill-formed. The potters throughout 

 the province, excepting those at Srinagar^ are unacquainted with the use of 

 the wheel. The turning lathe, the large saw, and the plane, are unknown 

 here : planks are split from the tree by the axe, and then partially smoothed 

 by the adze. It may be mentioned as a curious fact, that the spirit blow pipe 

 is to be met with in Gerhwal, where it is sometimes used by goldsmiths : this 



