OF KAMAON. 207 



profits of agriculttire, while the increased competition which has taken place in 

 the trade with this province, has considerable enhanced the value of its exports. 

 To the laboring classes, more particularly those in the neighbourhood of 

 the military posts, the public works and the transport of stores have afforded 

 continued sources of employment. The aggregate expenditure under these 

 heads, during the last eight y^ars has, probably, not been much short of 4 lacks 

 of rupees, a large sum as compared with the amount of the population by which 

 it will have been absorbed. It cannot, however, be denied, that the demand for 

 labor on these accounts has, at some periods, been so excessive as to prove the 

 occasion of inconvenience and hardship to the people concerned. Partial re- 

 ductions in the military force, and the augmented resources of the province, 

 have, in some measure, counteracted the evil. The whole province exhibits 

 ample proofs of improvement ; indeed it may be fairly stated, that the 

 present cultivation exceeds that of 1815, in the proportion of full one-third. 

 From the subdivided state of landed property, which here exists, few 

 individual landholders have the means of acquiring wealth, but though all 

 connected with the soil are confined to a state of equality, their condition, as 

 a body, is no doubt superior to that of any similar class of tenants, in any part 

 of the Company's territories. A knowledge of these advantages has induced 

 a continual emigration of cultivators from the adjoining provinces of the 

 Rajas of Nipaland Gerhival. To some of the principal Kamins and Brahmins, 

 the introduction of the British government, by destroying their former 

 influence, has proved a cause of regret, but to the great bulk of the popula- 

 tion, this event has been a source of unceasing benefits and congratulation. 



