ivation I have hitherto seen. The fields are
occasionally surrounded with stone walls, but generally only protected
from the inroads of cattle by branches of thorny shrubs strewed on their
edges. They are kept clean, and above all, manure is used: it is however
dry and of a poor quality, apparently formed of animal and vegetable
moulds. In some of the fields the surface is kept very fine, all stones
and clods being carefully removed and piled up in various parts of the
field, but whether these masses are again strewed over the ground. The
plough is used, and penetrates to about four inches. Hoes and rakes are
also used, but the angle of the handle is much too acute. Radishes are
grown with the wheat: no rice is cultivated here.

The village Bhoomlungtung, at which we are stationed is on the left bank
of a branch of the Bhoomla nullah, a river of some size, but fordable in
most places, its bed being subdivided. It is 8,668 feet above the sea.
The houses are ordinary, but they are surrounded with stone walls. Our's,
which is a portion of the Dhumpas or headman's, has a court-yard,
surrounded by a stone wall, and the entrance is defended by a stout and
large door. The natives invariably wear dark clothing, the colour being
only rivalled by that of their skins, for I never saw dirtier people. The
Bhooteas hitherto visited, were quite paragons of cleanliness compared to
those we are now among. Half ruined villages are visible here and there,
although otherwise the appearance of the valley is prosperous enough. The
valley is surrounded on all sides by hills of great altitude, the lowest
being 10,500 feet high. Snow is plentiful on the ridges, but it does not
remain long below, although falls are frequent. No fish are to be seen
in the river, which is otherwise as regards appearance as beautiful a
trout stream as one could wish to have. The birds are the common
sparrow, field-fare, red-legged crow, magpie, skylark, a finch which
flies about in large flocks, with a sub-forked tail, raven, red-tailed
stonechat, larger tomtit, syras, long-tailed duck, and quail, which is
much larger than that found in Assam. The woods are composed entirely of
Abies pendula, a few A. spinulosa occur, intermixed, but the woods of the
latter species are scarcely found below 9,500 feet. The ridges are
clothed with the columnar Abies densa. In thickets a smaller Rosa,
Rhododendron ellipticum, foliis basi cordatis, Rhododendron elliptic