khara, a weapon something between a sword and bill hook; but the workmanship is very inferior to that of Nipal. The scabbards of these weapons are very neatly ornamented by long thin strips of the quill part of the peacock's feather: this is worked into the leather in flowers or other fancy patterns: it is sometimes done so neatly and finely as to appear like thread.

82. A few boats are built on the banks of the Ganges and Jumna, and carried into the plains for sale.

COMMERCE.

83. The commerce of the country should be divided into two heads, that between the Doon and hills, and between the Doon and plains; it is, however, difficult to draw the precise line, because much of what is brought from the plains, is both for the Doon and hill consumption; and part of what comes from the hills is for the plains as well as the Doon.

84. The produce of the Doon carried to the plains, consisted of timbers, bamboos, lines, khut (terra japanica) rice, sometimes other grains.

85. The Doon receives copper, brass and hard-ware, cotton cloth, some blankets, salt, the bodaree sort from Samur, sugar, both kund and goor, tobacco, dried fruits and spice, and usually at one season of the year wheat.

86. To the hills are taken brass, copper, and hard-ware, cotton cloths, sugar (goor only) salt, fine blankets, coarse ornaments and pewter for making them, and spices.

87. From the hills are brought coarse blankets, rice, ginger, turmeric, red pepper, hooka pipes, (made of a reed called rungal) booj (birch bark) honey, wax (these in small quantities) lak, gum, resin and many sorts of roots, mosses or other substances, used either in dyeing or in medicines.

88. The people estimate the trade of the Doon, exports at forty-five or fifty thousand rupees, and imports at about double that; but it is obvious that such guesses are very little to be depended upon, particularly as the above contains a fallacy either in the amount of goods or in their value, since it is impossible for any country or province for a continuance to import so much more than they export. It is probable that the whole trade of the Doon of every sort does not exceed 200,000 rupees, and that the imports from the plains do somewhat exceed the exports, on account of Dehra being the headquarters of the Sirmoor Battalion, to pay which requires about 50,000 rupees in addition to what is derived from the revenue of the provinces after paying the civil establishment. This is annually brought up in cash from Suharunpoor, and part of it finds its way back in the purchase of sugar, salt and other produce of the plains, required by the men of the corps. The establishment of the convalescent depôt at Landour, will of coure cause a considerable influx of capital, and corresponding benefit to the province.

89. There is no doubt that the exportation of grain from the Doon to the plains might be greatly encreased, and will be, unless the convalescent depôt be greatly encreased so as to consume the whole, which is much to be desired, as the Doon as yet has only agricultural produce to give in exchange for other commodities; but as if to check every attempt of the inhabitants to rouse themselves from the apathy into which they

had fallen, until an English functionary resided in the Doon, the native officer in charge of the revenue, prevented grain being exported, for fear it should become scarce in the Doon. However, a parellel instance might be cited of an English civil functionary having the same notions.

90. There is a curious fact worth noting, which without some explanation would seem erroneous, viz., that grain is at one season of the year carried from the Doon to the plains, and at another brought from the plains to the Doon, although the market price in the plains may be, and usually is, higher at the latter time than at the former. The explanation is, first, the want of capitalists in the Doon; second, that the population is almost entirely agricultural; and, thirdly, that the same individuals who sell are not those who rebuy at Saharunpoor. At the harvest the landholders and cultivators reserve grain enough for their own annual consumption, for seed, and usually a little to sell in retail; the rest they are obliged to dispose of at once to enable them to pay their rent, but small as the consumption at Dehra is, the capitalists who deal in grain are unable to store more than enough for a portion of the year's supply, and it is carried to the plains for sale. When the stored grain has been consumed, the shop-keepers, who supply the bazar, are necessitated to procure more from wherever it may be obtainable. The hills supply enough of the autumn grains, rice, mundooa, &c., while those of the spring crop, wheat and barley, are brought from Saharuupoor. None of the agricultural class supply themselves from the bazar, nor do the whole of the sepahees and gentlemen's servants at Dehra, but a portion of these classes; and the explanation of this may be given as a reason why there has always existed some difficulty in keeping up a good bazar for the ordinary food of the people, either in the town of Dehra, or in the lines of the Battalion.

91. The Sirmoor Battalion, although from its origin called a Goorka corps, is now chiefly composed of men from the adjoining hill provinces, many of whose homes are not more than from one to three days' journey distant from Dehra. These are supplied with grain by their relations, to whom in return they give part of their savings; others buy it a mun at a time from the neighbouring landholders at a cheaper rate than they can get it in the bazar, and the only class who deal regularly with the shop-keepers, are the spendthrift sepahees and servants who never possess any cash, but who take their month's supply on credit, and pay their bills on the issue of pay.

92. The mode of conveyance to the plains is chiefly by carriage cattle, bullocks,' poneys, and some few camels. A very small proportion of goods are conveyed by men. Carts are only as yet used for conveyance of the jungle produce to the plains, and almost the whole of them belong to merchants from that part. Hill produce is brought to the Doon entirely by men. The greater part of the timber is floated in rafts down the Ganges and Jumna-Lucker-ghat on the former, and Raj-ghat on the latter, are the chief points of embarkation. The rafts are made very long and narrow for the shooting down the rapids, which extend in each river for some miles after they debouche on the plains. These rapids are so shallow and stony as not to admit the passage of the smallest laden boat; but flat bottomed boats, which are built within the Doon, can be taken down to the plains with great care and trouble. The size of the boats usually built is probably equal to about ten tons of our measurement; thirty or forty men walk along the bank, restraining the impetus of the boats by means of long ropes, and thus they are allowed to drop slowly down. It would be possible with some fifty or sixty men to drag a boat of the above size up the rapids, but it is rarely done. It is a curious circumstance that the name for a rapid should be quite different on the Ganges and Jumna; by the raft men

E

of the former it is called gulla, by those of the latter bhegur; each name is quite unknown to those who use the other. Quere. It is possible that among the migrations that have taken place in India, the ancestors of the raftmen on each river could have come from different parts of the country.

i

93. Near the jungly villages of the Saharanpoor district, under the lower range of hills, about 1,500 Brinjaris reside, possessing about 15,000 bullocks; they chiefly gain their livelihood by transporting the jungle produce, on their own account, but are ready to hire out their cattle to any body who wants them; some of these, in particular three fine old men, who live near Imlee, were with Lord Lake in his campaign in the Punjab. The usual hire of a poney to Saharanpoor is one rupee for the trip; of a bullock eight annas.

94. The Dehra merchants deal chiefly with those of the town of Saharunpoor: those of Jhano, Bhojpoor and Rekikes, deal with the Kunkul merchants. A hoondee, or native banker's draft, could not be procured in Dehra or any other town but Saharunpoor.

95. The trade from Hindoostan to Kashmeer at one time passed through the Doon. The disorders in the Punjab and Saharunpoor, consequent on the breaking up of the Mogul empire, stopped the usual channel of trade by that route, and obliged the caravans to go by the hills. They started from Nujeebabad, passed through the Chundee Purgunnah, crossing the Ganges at Luckur-ghat and thence to Dehra, and quitted the Doon after crossing the Jumna at Raj-ghat, from whence they proceeded up the Kearda Doon to Nahun and through the hills. When Forster passed up in 1782, the Chandee province belonged to Sreenugur, and Lal Dhang, at the very foot of the hills, was the residence of an officer, on the part of that Government, stationed to collect the toll; the caravans consequently went from Nujeebabad to Lall Dhang, and thence through the Deleghata, a pass in the Kaneea hills, which divide Chandee. At that time the Sreenugur Government was not strong enough to protect the caravans from the chance of plunder; and black mail, under the name of hiring a guard from them, was paid to the different tribes who inhabited that part of the country. It is curious that between Nujeebabad and Luckur-ghat, a distance of about 50 miles, it was necessary to propitiate no less than four different tribes-the Goojurs, Boksas, Herees, and Mheras. Shortly after this the Chandee Purgunnah was seized by the Nuwab of Lucknow, and then the caravans travelled direct from Nujeebabad via Kaneea to the Deleghata; under this Government the black mail system is said not to have been carried to quite so great an extent. Usually one caravan left and arrived annually. The beginning of February was the time of leaving Nujeebabad: that from Kashmeer usually arrived at Nujeebabad at the beginning of June, sometimes it was delayed on the road, halted at some intermediate place during the rains, and came down in the cold weather. From some reason or other the progress of the kafila seems to have been exceedingly dilatory, halting for several days after only two or three journies. This was probably partly occasioned by making arrangements with the tribes through whose territory it was to pass, and for the convenience of trading at different places on the road; but at many of these, the delay seems to have been unnecessarily great. The caravan with which Forster travelled left Nujeebabad on the 14th February, and was nearly a month before it quitted Dehra; the distance between the two being only eight moderate days' journey. The kafilas by that route were even then rapidly diminishing, in consequence of the Punjab becoming more settled, and about the year 1793 altogether deserted the road by the hills.

CURRENCY.

96. The common Furruckabad rupee is the one current; a few of other sorts are Occasionally met with, viz., an old Bareilly and old Furruckabad, a Nanik Shahee, Lucknow, Putialee, each of which are valued at half an anna less. The Mahomud Shahee is taken even. A Sunnee rupee, an old Mahratta rupee, coined at Saharunpoor, at 1 anna less, a Jugadree rupee, at 2 annas less, a Juma Shahee rupee, which comes from the westward, at only 11 annas. The Calcutta gold-mohur sells for 18 or 19 rupees; pice at from 50 to 65 per rupee; cowries at 80 a pice; the Timashee, a small silver coin, currrent in the hills, at the rate of five for a rupee, or rather more than three annas each, but intrinsically scarce worth more than two annas, is seldom seen in the Doon.

WEIGHTS.

97. The mode of weighing grain or other articles, is similar to the plains by mun and seer; the seer is 84 rupees.

INHABITANTS.

98. There is such a mixture of different races in the Doon as to render it impossible to give any general description. The Rajpoots, who call themselves Rangurs, apparently are the oldest inhabitants. With Nujeeboodoulie, many Mussulmans settled here, many hill people have at different times taken up their residence. When Rajah Ramdial, of Lundhoura, had great influence in the Saharunpoor district, under the Marhattas, aud held a jagheer in the Doon, to bribe him to prevent his people from plundering it, a considerable number of Goojurs found their way up. Here and there a Sikh is met with.

99. Their personal appearance seems more to depend on the part of the valley in which they reside than on their extraction; those in and about Dhera, which is clear from jungle, are rather tall, particularly the Rangurs, stout looking men, but dark. Those in the jungly parts are squalid, thin, sickly-looking, with very often large stomachs.

100. There are, or rather were, two tribes in the province of Chandee, which deserve some notice: the Boksas and the Herees. The former are Hindoos, and claim to be Rajpoots from some part of the Jyepoor territory: they deserted their homes between two and three hundred years ago, and settled in the Terai of Rohilkund, from Chilkeea up to the borders of the Doon. Their constitutions have become acclimated to the jungle, and when encouraged, they become valuable cultivators. Another class of people called Tharoo is also found in the Rohilkund Terai; they are said by some to have originally been the same as the Boksas, but to have separated on some point of food or caste: none of these now reside in Chandee.

101. The other tribe, the Herees, are Mahommedans, and are said to have come originally from near Attock on the Indus: they settled in the Oude and Rohilkund Terai, where they still exist in considerable numbers. Some seventy years ago a colony of them came up to the Kaneea hills, in Chandee, where they took up their residence. They cultivated a little and possessed a good many cattle, but no small portion of their livelihood was obtained by levying black mail on caravans, travellers, and from the surrounding country, for which purpose Kaneea is well situated on a commanding height, overlooking the plain, while at its back is a mass of low hills, in which are abundance

of retreats for the thieves and booty, safe from the pursuit of any thing less than four or five thousand men, supplied with provisions, who should fairly occupy the hills for several days and ransack every defile.

102. The two tribes were occasionally "hounded," one against the other, for the recovery of plunder, and had periodical quarrels and skirmishes together on their own account. The most serious remembered was about a tank, three miles from Kaneea, which was common to both, in which the usual compliments were exchanged, i. e. the throwing in a dead cow by the Herees, while the Boksas tossed in a dead hog. But in truth the quarrels and fighting were much more nominal than real, each party being sensible that any serious dispute must end in the ruin of both. Extraordinary stories are told of Herees swimming across the Ganges on large skin floats, (made of a whole buffaloe hide, called surnǎe) seizing handsome women or those who wore valuable ornaments, who were bathing at the sacred spot, and carrying them off on the floats to the other side of the river. Possibly such an occurrence may have happened once or twice, when those bathing were taken by surprise, but it never could have been a common practice.

103. About the year 1796 A. D., the tribe of Herees amounted to about eight hundred souls. There are now but two individuals, a man and a woman of the tribe, left in the Chandee province, neither of whom are indigenous Herees. The man was originally a Doon from the hills, who voluntarily joined them and turned Moosulman: the woman was of the Kuhar caste of Hindoo, was carried off by them in 1796 when they plundered Chandee. She became the wife of the chief, but now lives in great poverty in a Boksa village in Chandee. She still, however, calls herself a princess, and talks of the hundreds of warriors who were formerly under her command. No emigration en masse took place of this tribe, or even of sufficient numbers at any one time, to excite remark. Some individuals have left this province and joined other haunts of the tribe in Rohilkund, but the mass seems to have gradually, to use the native expression, melted away.

104. It is strange that although situated in the same locality, with habits and mode of livelihood the same, the arms and mode of fighting of the two tribes should have been so different. The Herees relied chiefly upon the spear, to which some added a sword, and a very few kept a gun or a bow. The Boksas, on the contrary, adhered to the matchlock, every man being furnished with one of those weapons. They are excellent shots and keen sportsmen; almost every boy of ten years old will hit his mark at a very tolerable distance. Three or four years ago, when ganges of banditti, composed chiefly of Goojurs, infested the northern part of Moradabad and Saharun poor; they constantly retreated from pursuit into the jungles, where they would plunder any thing they found worth taking; yet when at the strongest, they scarcely dared molest a Boksa. Their own expression was "we should raise a nest of wasps about us, which would effectually close the jungles to us as a place of retreat in future." These Boksas, if encouraged, make good subjects, excellent cultivators, and would prove valuable police men in the jungly parts of the country. They still exist to the number of five hundred souls in the lower half of Chandee.

CASTES.

105. Both upper and lower classes seem to be as strict in preserving the rules of caste as they are in the plains, but not more so. From not having seen much of the English, they have no ridiculous affectation that doing such and such things, is against