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COMPLIMENTARY ORDERS.

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for its preparation, which I understand he has done, at some expense and much labour.

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3. My short observation of the Goorkha Force, at the capital, leads me to judge that Captain Smith's notes on the army are in the main correct, and I have also reason to believe that the numbers of men, and quantities of stores entered on his return, are not far from the truth.

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CHAPTER II.

TOPOGRAPHY OF NEPAUL.

THE kingdom of Nepaul has now, for some years past, occupied so distinct and defined a position in our best maps of India, that, did not custom sanction a particular topographical account of every place to which it has become expedient to devote a volume, the appropriation of a few pages to a description of the situation and boundaries of the kingdom would be supererogatory. It is manifestly the duty of every writer, to render his details clear to the meanest

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perception, and there is certainly no better way of reaching completeness than by the assumption that every reader is totally ignorant of the matter treated, yet avid for information and entirely dependant on the author's accuracy and

conscientiousness.

The kingdom, or state of Nepaul, is a tract of country about seven hundred and fifty miles in length, and one hundred and seventy in breadth, situated between 26° 31' and 30° N. latitude. It is bounded on the north by a part of Thibet, from which it is separated by the Himalaya chain;* on the east, by Bootan and

* The boundary line to the north is not in our maps properly laid down. It appears by a recent communication from a Nepaul officer, who accompanied the mission to England in the year 1850, that the line should leave the boundary as laid down by us at Gossingtan, from which place, westward, both slopes of the main chain of the Himalayas belong to Nepaul. The boundary then runs along a ridge to the north of the Himalaya, including Mustang, a place about thirty miles from the foot of Dhawalagiri, and much resorted to by pilgrims. From Mustang the

the little Rajahship, or state of Sikkim, from which it is separated by the river Teesta; on the south, by the British-Indian province of Tirhoot, from which it is divided by the Terai, an immense forest, the eastern part of which is called the Moray district; and on the west, by the kingdom of Oude. The divisions of Nepaul are Jumla, Goorkha, Nepaul, Muckwanpore, and Morung. The principal rivers which traverse the territory are the Kalee and Surgoo,

frontier continues west, including the valley of Humla, with the head waters of the river Gogra. From this it appears that the distance from the Nepaul and Thibet frontier, to the Bramaputra or Dsanpo river, is about fourteen miles. The two largest villages to the north, which carry on a great trade in salt with Thibet, are called Thak and Mooktinalt. It should be borne in mind that this boundary is claimed for Nepaul by a Nepaulese, whose assertions there have been no means of disputing. It is not impossible that he may have defined the boundary accurately, but as the extension of their territory has always been a favourite purpose with the Nepaulese, their own definitions must always be received with caution, if not with suspicion.

MILITARY STATIONS.

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which, meeting at a place called Bramadee, form the Goggra and Gunduck. The Gunduck is supposed to rise in the Himalayas, and flows into the Ganges near Patna. The upper part of the river is called Salgramee, from the stones called Salgrams which are found in it, and which the Hindoos hold in veneration.

The geographical position of the British territory, relating to Nepaul, is now as follows:

To the extreme west of Nepaul, lies Almorah, a hill-station, wrested from the Nepaulese in the war of 1815-16; to the extreme east is Darjeling, another hill-station, used by the Supreme Government of India as a sanatarium for invalids. The principal British cities and military stations which border on the Nepaul territory along the line of the Ganges, are, Berhampore (contiguous to the Morung district), Monghyr, Patna, Dinapore, Ghazeepore, Benares, Allahabad, Cawnpore, Lucknow, Futteghur, and Bareilly; the last named town lying opposite to a Nepaulese fort called Doti, and a few miles from the hill-station of Almorah.

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