13th Stage to Khíka-mácchá, East, 4 kós.

Descend half a kós to the Sapsú Khóla, a petty stream, which, however, the Kirántis esteem sacred. Cross it, and commence ascending the great mountain Tyám Kyá. Climb for one kós by a bad road to the village of Kháwa, and another kós equally severe to Chákhéva-bhanjáng, or the ridge, and then make an easy descent of one and a half kós to Khikamácchá, the haltingplace. It is a village of Kirántis, in which a mint for coining copper is established by the Durbar of Népál. The workmen are Bandas (Bandyas) of the valley of Népál, of whom there may be fifty or sixty. There is also a Taksári or mint master, and a squad of twenty-five soldiers under a jemadar.

14th Stage to Jinikhésáng, East, 5 kós.

After a kós of tolerably easy travelling, you come to Júkya Khóla, a petty stream, which passed you arrive in half a mile at Pakri, a village situated at the base of the Khokan ridge. Thence slightly descending for half a kós, reach Pikhúá Khóla. Cross it, and ascend the hill of Bhaktáni for one kós and reach Múrkiahúlák, a post-station of the Government close to the 66th mile-stone of the great military road leading from Káthmándú nearly to the frontier. Thence a descent of one kós to the Khésáng Khóla, one of the innumerable small mountain streams. Cross the Khóla, and ascend the ridge of Thaklia for half a kós to Bánskim and Powagaon, two small conjunct villages of Kirántis. Thence along the ridge of Khésáng for one and a quarter kós to Jinikhesáng, a large Kiránti village, the head of which is Balbhadra Rai, and whence there is a very fine view of the snows.

15th Stage to Jarai Tár, South-East, 5 kós.

Descending slightly for one and a half kós reach Yákú village, and then descending more abruptly for one kós, come to the Ghongaria Khóla, a small stream. Cross it, and proceed along the nearly level base of the Yákú ridge for two and a half kós

* The route gives 61. The difference of five kós is owing to the travellers making an occasional short cut, for they kept, generally, the great military highway.

to Jarai Tár, a large village inhabited by Kirántis, Khas, and Brahmans, and situated at the opening of an extensive and cultivated flat running along the right bank of the Arún River, and raised some thirty or forty cubits above the level of its bed. Such an elevated flat is called in the Khas tongue a Tár, whereas a low flat, or one on the level of the river, is termed a Biási. Every great river has here and there Társ, or Biásis, or both.* Társ, from being raised, are usually too dry for rice, but some can be well irrigated from the adjacent mountain, and then they will produce rice as well as Biásis. If not constantly irrigable, wheat, barley, millets, pulse, and cotton are grown in them. The elevation of Társ is too inconsiderable to exempt them from malaria, though they are usually rather more wholesome than the lower and often swampy Biásis. Jarai Tár is an extensive one, being one and a half kós wide, and, as is said, several miles long, following the river. The soil is red but fertile, and the whole of it is under cultivation. The village is large for the mountains, and has some fifty to sixty houses, some of which are pakka, as a caravansery, here called Dharamsála or Powa, and one or two more. The site of the village is higher than the rest of the Tár. The Pinus longifolia abounds in Jarai Tár, and peacocks are very numerous. Also Junglefowl and Káliches (Gallophasis melanoleucos).

* It is remarkable how universally this phenomenon of high and low levels of the land, indicating change in the relative heights of the land and water, prevails wherever obvious sedimentary deposits are found in definite locations. Herbert and Hutton, in their Reports of the Geology of the Western sub-Himálayas, perpetually speak of the phenomenon as occurring in the mountains, and, according to Herbert, also in the Dúns and even Bhaver; and Darwin ("Naturalist's Journal ") constantly records it in the course of his long survey of South America from Rio Janeiro to the north point of Chili.

The same thing is very observable in the great valley of Népál, whose whole surface is almost equally divided into high and low levels, though the operating cause must here have been modified in its action, as indeed is perpetually the case in different localities. The high and low levels of Tár and Biási I consider to represent the pristine and present beds of the rivers, whose constant erosion has during ages created this difference of level, often amounting to 150 or 200 feet. The low level of the valley of Népál I consider to have been suddenly scooped out, when the waters of the pristine lake (for such the valley was) escaped in one tremendous rush under the action of an earthquake, which rent the containing rock and let off the waters at once.

+From these indications, which are altogether exceptional as regards the mountains, it may be confidently stated that Jarai Tár is not more than 1500 feet above⚫ the sea.

16th Stage to Pákharibás, South-East, 21⁄2 kós.

Proceeding half a kós you come to the ferry of the Arún, which is a large river rising in Bhót, passing the Himachal above Hathia, and forming the main branch of the great Cósi. It is also the conterminal limit of Kiránt and Limbúán. It is passed at Liguaghát by boat, and is there very rapid and deep, and some thirty to forty yards wide. Thence down the left bank of the Arún for one kós to Mángmá, a village inhabited by Kirántis and Limbús, being on the common frontier of both tribes. Thence quitting the Arún, you reach the Mángmá Khóla in a quarter kós, and crossing it proceed half a kós along the mountain-side (manjh) to Ghórli Kharak, which is the name of a small village, and also of a celebrated iron mine, the workers of which dwell above the line of road. A vast quantity of fine iron is procured. This mine, like all others in Népál, is the property of the Government. Iron and copper abound in Népál. Most of the iron is consumed in the magazines for the army, or otherwise within the country; but a deal of the copper is exported, and forms a good part of the pice currency of the plains on this side the Ganges. The Népálese are very military. Khas, Magar, Gúrung, and even Bráhmans, except those of the priesthood, constantly wear side-arms of home manufacture; and the large army of the State is furnished with muskets, swords, and khúkris from native ore. Thus much iron is consumed, so that none is exported, at least none in the unwrought state, possibly because from defective smelting the ore becomes hardened by the accession of fumes of charcoal, and is thus rendered unfit for those uses to which soft iron is applied. From Ghórli Kharak, an ascent of a quarter kós to Pakharibús, the haltingplace, which is a Gúrung village, large but scattered, according to the wont of that tribe.

17th Stage to Dhankuta, South-East, 2} kós.

After a severe ascent of one and a half kós, a wide flat-topped mountain is gained, whence there is a fine view of the plains, and on the top of which is a small lake, very deep, and about half a kós in circumference. Its name is Hilial, and the water

is clear and sweet. Thence a steep descent of one kós brings you to Dhankuta, distant from Káthmándú seventy-eight standard* kós by the great military road, as recorded on the milestone at Dhankúta. Dhankuta is the largest and most important place in Eastern Népál, and the head-quarters of the civil and military administrator of all the country east of the Dúd Cósi† to the Sikim frontier, excepting only what is under the inferior and subordinate officer stationed at Ilám, who has a separate district bounded towards Dhankúta by the Tamór River. Bijaypúr, Cháyanpúr, Mánjh-Kiránt, and a great part of the Limbúán, are subject to Dhankúta, where usually resides a Káji or minister of the first rank, who likewise commands the troops stationed there. After defraying the local expenses, he remits annually nine lakhs of revenue to Káthmándú. Towards the plains the jurisdiction of Dhankúta extends over the old Bijaypúr principality, and towards the hills, over the country of the Kiránts and Limbús. But both the latter tribes are poor at once and impatient of control, so that the Népál Government is content with a lax general submission and a light revenue, levied and paid through the Rais or native heads of those tribes. And this is the reason why only nine lakhs are remitted from Dhankuta to Káthmándú. The present Governor of Dhankuta is a colonel, and brother to the Premier Jang Bahadur Konwar. There is a cantonment, a powder manufactory, a parade-ground at Dhankuta, where the Sri Jang regiment, five hundred strong, is now stationed. The place owes its origin to the Górkháli dynasty, and is therefore recent; but it is growing fast into a town, the pakka houses being already numerous, and the tradesmen and craftsmen abundant, active, and skilful. Provisions are plentiful and cheap, and the workers in Kánsa (mixed metal) are celebrated for the excellence of their commodities, many of which find sale so far off as Káthmándú. The Kirántis and Limbús, who constitute the soldiery or militia of the former Bijaypur state, pay to the Górkháli Government annually, in

*The Itinerary gives seventy-one and a half kós. The difference has been explained in a prior note. The standard kós of Népál is equal to two and onethird English miles.

The central administration extends to the Dúd Cósi. See Essay on the Laws and Legal Administration of Népál in the Transactions of the Society, Vol. XVII., and Section XII. of this volume.

lieu of all other taxes and claims, seven and a half rupees per house or family. The houses or families are large, so that each can cultivate a great extent of ground. But how much (or little) soever they may raise, each family is free on payment of the annual fixed assessment, which the Rais above noticed collect and deliver. The Rais also administer police and justice among their own people in all ordinary cases. Capital crimes are referred to the Governor of Dhankúta, who must have the Durbar's sanction for every sentence of death or confiscation. Dhankuta overlooks Bijaypúr, the old capital of the Eastern Makwani or Bijaypúr principality, which stands on the skirts of the Tarai of Morang, but within the hills; and no part of the lowlands (Madhés) is subject to the Governor of Dhankúta. The Madhés is administered by Súbahs, of whom there are seven for the whole.*

18th Stage to Bháinsiátár, South-East, 6 kós.

A sharp descent of one kós brings you to the banks of the Tamór, which is a large river, though less than the Arún. It is never fordable, and is crossed in boats. It is very deep, rapid, but not clear, and about thirty cubits wide between the hotweather banks. This is the seventh and last of the great feeders of the Cósi, which it joins at Tirbéni, a holy place of pilgrimage, so called from its being the point of union of the three rivers, Tamór, Arún, and Sún Cósi.t The Tamór rises from the western aspect of Káng-chán-júnga. We crossed the Tamór in a boat, and then proceeded half a kós down its left bank. Thence quitting the river, you skirt the base of the Mádi hill for one kós to the Tankhudá-nadi, a small hill stream. Cross it to Mámagá Tár, and then travel through this fine extensive flat for two kós. The whole is cultivable, and the most part cultivated by Denwárs and Mánjlis,‡ and it is situated on the

* The seven zillahs of the Népálese lowlands, which extend from the Méchi to the Arrah, are Morang, Saptari, Mahotari, Rotahat, Bárá, Parsa, and Chitwan. These seven constitute the Eastern Tarai. The Western Tarai extends from the Arrah to the Ghagra. It has lately been restored to Népál, which lost it in the war of 1416.

+ Of the seven Cósis, the Támba and Likhú are lost in the Sún Cósi, and the Barún in the Arún, the latter four above the route. Tirbéni is immediately above Váráha Kshetra before noticed, as the point where, or close to which, the united Cósis issue into the plains.

See Essays (1874), Part II., p. 60.