Under such circumstances, Thibet cannot be sup posed to be a very salubrious country. Disease, in deed, is very prevalent. Coughs, colds, and rheu matism, as might be expected, are common. Liver and bowel complaints, and fevers, are less general. Small-pox is a disease so dreaded, that when it ap pears in a village, the healthy have been known to desert it, and leave the affected unattended. Glan dular swellings in the throat, like the goitres of Switzerland, are also prevalent in some districts. (For an account of the nature and cure of this dis ease, see SWITZERLAND.) From the inclement nature of the climate, agri culture has not arrived at great perfection in Thi bet. In truth, physical disadvantages, in this re spect, seem to be insuperable. So violent are the winds in winter, that, on the approach of that sea son, the inhabitants cover their lowlands with wa ter, with a view to have them encrusted with ice, to prevent their being stripped of their soil by the storm. Tillage, therefore, cannot be begun till the ice disappears. Their mode of thrashing farther shows the rude state in which agriculture is placed. "`Vhen the corn," says Turner, " is sufficiently hardened, a number of cattle are brought, a circle is cleared, and they are driven in a ring round a centre, to tread the grain from the ear, as fast as it is thrown under their feet." (p. 354.) Their spe cies of grain seems to be confined to wheat, pease, and barley. The cold, however, is sometimes so in tense that the crops cannot arrive -t maturity; and they are made use of as fodder for the cattle dur ing the depth of winter.
Nor, under such circumstances, can their pas ture be expected to be good. It is really bad in the extreme. The rainy season gives rise to a scanty herbage, which, on the approach of dry or winter weather, immediately withers, and, on being rub bed between the fingers, crumbles into dust : yet large droves of cattle feed upon it; for it is a sin gular fact, that animals, ranging in a state of na ture, prefer such food to the exuberant herbage of milder climates.
Notwithstanding the inclemency of the climate and the general sterility of the soil, Thibet teems with animal life, and can boast of some species pe culiar to itself. Of these latter, one of the most striking and least known to Europeans is the musk deer or /a, in the language of the country. " This animal," to use the words of Captain Turner, " is about the height of a moderately sized hog, which in the figure of its body it much resembles. It has a small head, a thick and round hind-quarter, no scut, and extremely delicate limbs. The greatest singularity in this animal is the sort of hair with which it is covered, which is prodigiously copious, between two and three inches long, and grows erect all over the body, lying smooth only where it is short, viz. on the head, ears, and legs. Such rough ness is found to consist more of the nature of fea thers than of hair; or rather it resembles the por cupine's quill; yet it is thin, flexible, not straight, but undulated. The musk is a secretion formed in a little bag or tumour, resembling a wen, situated at the navel, and is found only in the male. The musk-deer is the property of the state, and is hunted only by the permission of government. It cannot be domesticated. It delights in intense cold, and is always found in places bordering on snow. It has never been seen in any other country but Thibet and Tartary; and when taken from its own climate, it gradually dwindles and dies." (lb. p. 200-1.) The Thibetian breed of sheep is very valuable. Flocks of them are numerous; they are of a small size, with black heads and legs; their wool is soft, and their flesh almost 1 he only kind used in Thibet, and which being preserved, as before stated, by be ing exposed to the action of cold, is pronounced by Captain Turner to form the finest mutton in the world. They are used as beasts of burden; they carry from twelve to twenty pounds ; and whole flocks of them are occasionally employed in this capacity. Their skins, which are commonly cured
with the wool on, form the winter dress of the na tives and of travellers. The fleece of the lambs is of exquisite softness, and brings a great price, par ticularly in Tartary and China, being used in these countries for lining clothes and as fur. The bull of Thibet, called also the yak of Tartary, is the last species of animal peculiar to this climate, which here requires a minute description. It is about the size of one of the English breed, but so hairy that its fleeces flow down so far as the knee, and some times trails on the ground; so that not a joint or a muscle is seen. These bulls are of all colours, but black and white predominate. They do not low like the cattle of England, but make a grunting noise scarcely audible. They pasture in the coldest parts of the country. They are never employed in agri culture, but are used as beasts of burden. Their tails, known by the name of chowries, are used in India to drive away insects, or as an ornament upon horses and elephants. The horses of Thibet, which are extremely docile, are small like our ponies. There are some beasts of prey, as the tiger and the ounce. The lakes abound with wild geese, ducks, teal, storks, and cranes. 'We have, as yet, obtained no knowledge respecting the fish and insects of this singular country. Of the goats of Thibet, an ac count may be found under the article SHAWL-GOAT, in Vol. xvii. p. 101.
Nor is the mineral kingdom of Thibet much less important than the animal, which we have just de scribed. Gold is very common, both in the form of gold-dust and in masses and veins. The adhering stone is generally flint or quartz; and Dr. Saunders sometimes saw a half-formed impure sort of pre cious stone in the mass. There are mines of lead, copper, and iron. The Thibetians work cinnabar mines, which abound in quicksilver; and they know how to employ that metal as a specific, as in Europe. Rock-salt is also common. There are no coal mines; but as this useful species of fuel is abundant in some parts of China bordering on Thibet, it may, ere long, it is probable, be found to exist also in that latter country. But the most singular product of this country is tincal or crude borax. "Tincal, the nature and production of which we have only hith erto," says Dr. Saunders, " been able to guess at, is now well known; and Thibet, from which we are supplied, contains it in inexhaustible abundance. It is a fossil, and is found deposited or formed in the bed of a lake; and those who go to collect it, dig it up in large masses, which they afterwards break into small pieces, for the convenience of car riage, exposing it to the air to dry. Tincal is used in Thibet for soldering, and to promote the fusion of gold and silver. (Turner, p. 406; or Phil. Trans actions, v. lxxix.) The Thibetians can hardly be said to engage in any kind of manufactures. Most of their exportable products they sell in a raw state. Shawls, to a li mited degree, and a coarse species of woollen stuff for their own use, form their chief, if not their only manufacture. Nor, unless coal is found in abun dance, will they ever be a manufacturing people, on account of their want of fuel. The dung of animals forms at present their principal fuel. But though manufacturing industry is at so low an ebb with them, the products of the country are so peculiar and valuable, that their commerce is very consider able. Their chief exports are the hair of the shawl goat, which they send in a raw state generally to Cashmere; musk, tincal, gold-dust, rock-salt, skins, coarse woollens, the manufacture of Thibet, to the inhabitants of Tartary, China, and Bootan. The imports consist of silk, cottons, English broad cloths, bullion, trinkets, such as snuff-boxes, knives, scissors, optical glasses, and the spices and aroma tics of Bengal. But the Chinese, to whom Thibet is virtually a vassal, have of late forbidden all in tercourse between that country and Bengal: they have also excluded foreign merchants from Thibet.