416 



The Valley of A'epaitl. 



[Oct. 



west, where Indian corn and Murwa are occasionally cultivated ; but 

 lhe angle of these is so acute and the soil so unproductive as to render 

 the husbandry of the rudest possible description and their produce too 

 scanty to entitle them to be included in the regularly cultivated valley 

 land. To speak generally, the mountain b.ases bounding the valley, 

 too steep to admit of being cut into terraces, are excluded from the 

 area above laid down ; and with sufficient reason, as, in such lands, 

 water cannot be retained for the growth of rice, and the quality of 

 the soil is such as not to admit of the sowing of wheat, or any of the 

 numerous and nutritious pulses, which abound in the more level lands. 

 The crops of such places are limited to Indian corn, Murwa, and 

 Phofur. 



T he general appearance of the valley, viewed from the sum- 

 mit of any of the surrounding mountains, is that of a series of 

 hills with intervening valleys, irrigated plentifully by miniature 

 canals, and traversed in a waving line from north-east to south- 

 west by a moderately sized river, in which many of the stream- 

 lets directly terminate, and in the direction of which all are bending 

 their course. This appearance is not so striking in the drier months 

 of the year, although sufficiently evident even then, as during the 

 rainy season, when the Bagmutti river by which the entire waters of 

 the valley quit its boundaries, may be most aptly likened to a large 

 venous trunk of an animal body, formed by innumerable smaller 

 branches, each collecting at their source the fluid which animates as it 

 runs, the bodies which surround it. From the cloud capped mountain 

 peaks these little feeders take their rise, increasing as they rush down 

 the precipitous sides, until, arrived at the more level base, they grow 

 calmer and less fretful, permitting themselves to be diverted by in- 

 numerable chann els into the fields below, and their speed to be wasted 

 by diffusion over the terraced flats prepared for their welcome recep- 

 tion. Others of these feeders issue in considerable volume, and at 

 once, from the foot of the hills ; forming abundant and permanent 

 springs of the clearest water. This occurs especially at the foot of 

 Nagarjun, a high round-shaped hill forming the western boundary of 

 the valley, covered by a thick stratum of soil from base to summit, and 

 having in the neighbourhood of the spring no water course for the tor- 

 rents along its face. At Nilkanth on the northern, and at Godawrey 

 on the southern boundary, there are similar springs which continue to 

 pour forth a steady stream throughout the year. Each of the springs 

 is the favourite resting places of the respective presiding deities,whose 

 images alone are now extant ; but according to popular belief these 



