8 BHOTIA MEHALS 



proximity of snow. In the poor lands, which may not be capable 

 of irrigation, from three to six for one, is the average produce. The 

 " Phapar" which does not require irrigation, gives from thirty to forty 

 fold. 



Both wheat and " Mar.su" are uncertain, the crop in many seasons 

 never reaching maturity, and in the most favorable years being far from 

 abundant. " Phapar" would appear to be indigenous, as it is to be found 

 wild on all high mountains. 



The operations and implements of husbandry present no novelties : 

 the ploughing commences as early as the melting of the snow will 

 admit, and the sowing is commonly completed by the first week in June. 

 By the middle of September, the crop is ready for the sickle : to this 

 period the irrigation of the wheat and barley is continued, the streams 

 of melted snow being directed for that purpose, whenever available. Se- 

 vere winters, attended with heavy snows, prove more or less injurious in 

 their consequences to the succeeding crops. The Bhot villages are all 

 situated on the northern side of the great chain of Himalaya Peaks, and 

 are all, in some degree, subject to the influence of its snows and of its 

 shade. By any unusual accumulation of snow on the summit, the in- 

 ferior bed is forced down, and with it, the influence of, if not the line of 

 perpetual congelation itself, descends : those villages which are con- 

 tiguous to the peaks, and are unsheltered by intervening heights, suffer 

 severely from such occurrences, as it sometimes requires the heat of 

 more than one summer to throw back the snow to its former level. The 

 village of Laspa, in the Juwar Ghat, has been rendered wholly unproduc- 

 tive during two years, by an incident of this kind. This village lies on 

 the northern base of the great peak of Nanda Devi, but is the southern- 

 most and least elevated within the Ghat : the peculiarities of its situation, 



as 



