OF KAMAON. 37 



in China, that it leaves to every Hiuniya the power of trafficking directly 

 with the foreign trader, though it restricts his dealings to particular indi- 

 viduals : the only persons who appear to be exempt from its operation in 

 Hiundes, are the local officers, civil and military, and the Lamas. On the 

 dealings of foreign merchants with each other, it has no effect. A brief 

 notice of the several principal exports and imports may now be taken. 



EXPORTS. 



Grain forms the staple article of Bhotia export ; it may be computed 

 that from twenty to thirty thousand maunds of every kind, annually find 

 their way to Hiundes, through the five passes collectively ; the high prices 

 and rapid sale, which this article invariably commands in that country, 

 lead to the presumption, that the present state of supply is insufficient to 

 the wants of the inhabitants ; but no considerable augmentation in the for- 

 mer can be expected to take place with the present inefficient means of 

 transport, to which the Bhotias are confined by the difficulties of the 

 passes. As the Himalaya villages yield no disposeable surplus produce, 

 the supplies for Hiundes are drawn from other parts of the province, 

 chiefly from the northern pergannas. The Bhotias make their purchases 

 in the same manner as the Binjaris, by carrying salt to the villages, and 

 bartering it for grain. As soon as the loads of the whole flock have been 

 exchanged, it is driven to an intermediate depot, where the grain is stored 

 and from whence fresh loads of salt are brought by the sheep. During the 

 cold months this system extends to the midland pergannas ; from the 

 end of March the flocks ply in the northern districts, and from the begin- 

 ning of May they are employed in transporting the grain from the foot of 

 the Ghat to the Himalaya villages. For the convenience of this traffic, 

 the Bhotias have, accordingly, three depots — one at their Bhot village, the 

 second at the base of the Himalaya, and the third, some three or four 



1 days' 



