163/.] 



The Valley of Nepaul. 



445 



5.— Notes on the Agriculture and Rural Economy of the Valley of 

 Nepaul.— By A. Campbell. Esq. Officiating Assistant to the Resident. 



[Dr. Campbell has obligingly favored us with a copy of his excel- 

 lent treatise, under the above title, which forms the 2d fasciculus of the 

 4th vol. of the Trans, of the A. and H. Society, of which we avail 

 ourselves to introduce the general descriptive portion in this Journal. 

 —Ed.] 



The entire surface of the valley of Nepaul is either under regular 

 cultivation, or capable of being so. It is completely free from rocky 

 and stony tracts, as well as sandy wastes ; and, with very few excep- 

 tions, the fields have a superficial stratum of nutritious soil, a foot or 

 more in thickness. The area of the valley, in the absence of a pro- 

 fessional survey, cannot be correctly stated ; nor is it easy to make a 

 near approximation to it, on account of the irregular outline formed 

 by the basis of the boundary mountains, which throw spurs inwards 

 in some places more than a mile in length, forming bays or subordi- 

 nate valleys of considerable extent. The average extreme length from 

 east to west, including the retiring valleys, may be estimated at 20 

 miles, with an equal breadth, similarly calculated. The valley pro- 

 per, or such an area as might be squared by drawing a line along the 

 inner extremities of the mountain spurs, has a diameter in either 

 direction of about 15 miles. Within this space however, is included 

 the low ridge of hills which being given off at Dochoke, the western 

 mountain boundary of the valley, runs eastward and by south, crossing 

 the channel of the Bagmutti river, until it terminates in the general 

 level near the village of Sussanally, situated at the south-east corner 

 of the valley. The above limits give as a maximum average of arable 

 surface 400 square miles, or 3,56,000 English acres, and as a minimum 

 average, 222 square miles, or 1,42,000 acres. The former, on account 

 of the hilly portions which intervene in the subordinate valley?, and 

 are but partially cultivated, is considerably I believe beyond the mark, 

 while the latter estimate, from excluding altogether the retiring valleys, 

 is to that extent deficient, as the surface of these subordinate valleys, 

 is of greater extent than the uncultivated proportion of the moun- 

 tainous spurs which form them. AVe may I think safely assume as a 

 mean, and correct diameter to the arable land, 18 miles in each direc- 

 tion, which gives an area of 324 square miles, or 2,07,300 English 

 acres asunder, or fit for agricultural operation, and for yielding the 

 higher descriptions of produce. There are precipitous portions of the 

 mountainous faces bounding the valley, particularly on the south and 



