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TREES AND VEGETATION

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charcoal is made of the Bhâng or holly leafed oak.

Upon the summit of the lofty hills, north of Khatmandoo are the Champah, a tree which measures in girth eleven feet at least, and the Shujh, or milk tree which grows to an enormous size.

The grains produced in the low lands of Nepaul, are Indian corn, rice, wheat, barley, millet and pulses of other kinds. The sugar cane is cultivated a good deal, and is profitable; but as its culture is expensive, the landowners raise no more than is necessary for their own consumption. Cotton grows in some places and garlic is abundant. Of the fruits, the chief are the pine-apple, the guava and the orange. The oranges of the valley of Nyakote are justly esteemed. They are propagated from the seed which is sown in earthen vessels filled with a black loom, some time in the month of Assar (July), if not exposed to the weather they are watered twice a day, and in Kartic (November) are transplanted, a proper distance being preserved between the young shoots the

remain in the highest perfection for three months, preserving much of their excellence for six. Some gardens produce them throughout the whole year, but in that case the trees are obliged to be secured against the inclemencies of the weather. Of the vegetables of the country the principal are cabbages, peas, turnips potatoes, yams, and wild asparagus.

The most remarkable drug to be found in Nepaul is the Cherrus, the offspring of the plant Jeea. It is chiefly raised to the north west of the kingdom. The plant differs in no respect from the hemp, excepting in the odour of its leaves, which is of a most overpowering strength. The Cherrus is extracted from the shrub when the plant is in flower and its seeds on the point of maturity, it being material to the purity of the extract, that the leaf should not be parched or dry. The manipulations of the plant consist in rubbing the leaves gently between the hands until these become sufficiently charged with the juice, which adheres to the palms in the form of a dark, viscid, and tolerably consistent substance; this being removed with a spatula or knife, is made up into balls or lumps, which, third year they bear fruit, and when at maturity

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while unrefined, are sold under the name of cherrus. The clarrified cherrus is called mômea (from its resemblance to wax), and burns with the brightness of a resinous flame. Its gum is a most potent narcotic, possessing very valuable medical qualities. The grosser products of the plant are called Gunja and Bharq or Subje, the former being a preparation of flowers and the latter of the leaves. From the hemp, the Newars of Nepaul fabricate some coarse linen and also a very strong kind of sackcloth. Spikenard (juttemasi) and gentian are to be added to the drugs of Nepaul.

The mountainous parts of Nepaul are rich in mines of iron and copper. The produce of the former is smelted in other hills than those where the ore is found. The copper is of a very superior kind, and before the opening of a trade between England and India was preferred for consumption in the territories of the King of Oude to that exported from this country. Its supercession by the European produce, doubtless arose from the difficulty and expense of

VOL. I.

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transportation through a mountainous tract, having no navigable rivers, and the ignorance of the Nepaulese in the arts of mineralogy and metallurgy. Lead mines, yielding also a proportion of silver, are to be found in Moulkote, and it is supposed that there are gold mines to the north, though as yet no traces of gold have been discovered excepting in the beds of the torrent which rush through Kachar to the eastward. The recent discoveries of extensive mines in Australia and California may, perhaps, lead to a geological comparison in view to the determination of the extent of the mineral wealth of Nepaul; but as this is a matter of less interest to ourselves than to the Nepaulese, it is unnecessary to go into speculation as to the probable results of research. The western parts of Nepaul abound in arsenic and pyrites, marble, jasper, chrystal, limestone, slate, &c., and the beds of the streams which spring from the south face of Koomhara mountain are strewed with huge blocks of talc of two or three kinds, the most esteemed of which is the Koushnocbruik or black talc.

ANIMAL KINGDOM.

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CHAPTER IV.

THE ANIMALS OF NEPAUL; WITH SOME NARRATIVES OF SPORT IN THE FOREST.

THE animal kingdom of Nepaul seems to comprehend all the classes, quadrupedal and bipedal, to be found in the plains and mountains of Hindostan, only qualified by climate and situation. The low and level lands abound with elephants, tigers, rhinoceroses, &c. ; the hilly portions, with bears, deer, of every variety, and a great many of the finest members of the feathered creation.

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