1 LADAKH. 9
2 yak, the shaw]-goat, and other quadrupeds indigenous in the wilds
3 of Tibet.8 Lucerne is extensively cultivated for fodder. The § Moorer. 1.295.
4 people of Ladakh are industrious and skilful agriculturist/, forming
5 the sloping surfaces into terraces, irrigated by mearfy of water-
6 channels conducted from the higher ground. The kinds of grain
7 cultivated are wheat, barley, and buck-wheat, and Moorcroft
8 mentions that some of the crops were superior to any that he had
9 before beheld. Carraway, mustard, linseed, and tobacco are cul-
10 tivated to a slight extent. The esculent vegetables are carrots,
11 turnips, onions, cabbages, radishes.
12 The manufactures of Ladakh are few, rude, unimportant,
13 and adapted for home consumption. The principal are wool-
14 len cloths, which are made thick, soft, and strong, dhd, from
15 the cheapness of labour and of the material, are of very low
16 price.) Commerce is principally in transit, as Ladakh, from ° 1d. i. 523.
17 its situation, is the great thoroughfare for commercial inter-
18 course between Chinese Tartary and Great Tibet on the one
19 hand, and the Punjab on the other. The most important
20 article of trade is shawl wool, a small portion of which is pro-
21 duced. in the country, but much more imported from Chan-
22 than, and forwarded to Kashmir. The other imports from Tibet,
23 or from Chinese Tartary, are musk, borax, drugs, salt, tea, sugar,
24 gold, silver, silks, velvets, camlets, furs, felts.! Russian goods, ! Id. i. 358;
25 such as broad-cloth, leather, hardware, and drugs, find their way Siete aats
26 through the same channel. The more valuable of these imports
27 are destined to the Punjab. The imports from Kashmir and the
28 Punjab are shawls, chintzes and other cottons, copper and tin
29 utensils, shields, dye-stuffs, spices, drugs, pearls, butter, honey,
30 and grain. It is obvious that very little of these can be intended
31 for consumption in Ladakh, as there being no manufacturing in-
32 dustry, little but wool can be given in return. Moorcroft sup-
33 poses the collection of gold, if allowed by the government, would
34 form a very great source of national wealth. The beds of the
35 rivers, he states, ‘‘ abound with gold, in oblong grains and
36 laminz, detached from their matrix, and bruised, broken, and
37 flattened in their journey down their stony channels.” ?
38 The population is of that variety of the human race called the
39 Mongolian by Blumenbach and his followers, and are classed
40 under the general denomination Tibetan. The amount is esti-
41 mated by Moorcroft? at between 150,000 and 180,000 persons. 7 Sra
42 2 Jour. Roy. As.
43 Soc. 1, 52,