276 NEPAL Diwalagiri, Gosaintlán, and Kanchanjanga, and their numerous spurs and offshoots, which overrule the effects of all other intervening inequalities of surface, however vast, cause the several groups of mountain streams between them to converge until they unite and constitute the three main rivers mentioned above. The valley of Khatmandu is drained by the comparatively small of the Bagmati, which rises on the northern face of the hills overlooking the capital on the north. The drainage of the Tarai is for the most part of purely local origin. In this intimately connected system of mountains and rivers are found at greatly differing elevations the considerable valleys of Sumla, Khatmandu, Pokhra, Dhang, Deskhm, and Chitawan. Otherwise, so far as is known, the hill country is close and confined, abounding in narrow and deep tortuous valleys, in section like a V. The average elevation of the valley of Khatmandu, measured by the barometer, is about 4000 feet. It is of an ovoid or egg shape, with a maximum length from east to west of about 20 miles, and a maximum breadth of 15 miles from north to south. Although it is in no higher latitude than 27° 35' to 27° 50' north, yet it enjoys nearly the same climate as the south of Europe. The average shade temperature in a house at Khatmandu in summer varies from 81° to 86° F. At sunrise it is commonly between 60° and 64°, and at nine in the evening it generally fluctuates from 70° to 75o. The temperature varies necessarily with the elevation of the ground; so that by ascending the adjacent mountains, the heat of the plains may in the course of a few days be exchanged for the cold of perpetual snow. Agriculture. The products vary with the climate. In some parts rattans and bamboos, often of considerable dimensions, are seen, while other tracts produce only oaks and pines. In several hill valleys the pine-apple and sugar-cane ripen, whilst others yield only barley, millets, and similar grains. Kirkpatrick, from the spontaneous productions which he saw on the spot--namely, the peach, the raspberry, the walnut, the mulberry, and others — thought that all the fruits and esculent vegetables of England might with proper attention be successfully raised in the mountain valleys of Nepál. Later experience in the gardens of the British Residency tends to confirm his views, as, with the exception of September, there is not a month in which European fruits or vegetables of some kind cannot, with due care, be grown. In the warmer valleys the pine-apple is good and abundant; so too is the orange, which ripens in winter. Some fruits in the hills spoil owing to the excessive dampness of the rainy season. This inoisture is, however, very favourable to the production of Indian corn, rice, and other summer crops. On many a piece of land three crops are grown in the year, wheat or barley, or buckwheat
