Note 1308 — Chapter XVI · —Influences Of A Mountain Environment

Since it is scarcely practicable to divide these highland pastures, they have generally remained communal property, whether in Norway,1308 Switzerland, the Bavarian Alps, the British Himalayan districts,1309 Nepal and Bhutan,1310 or Kashmir.1311 In Europe their use is generally regulated. As a rule, a Swiss villager may keep on the Allmende during the summer as many head of cattle as he is able to stall-feed during the winter. Any in excess of this number must be paid for at a fixed rate to the village or commune treasury.1312 Hay-sheds and herdsmen's huts mark these districts of temporary occupation near the altitude limits of human life throughout Europe. In Asia, likewise, are to be found small villages, inhabited only in summer by herdsmen tending their flocks. Such is the hamlet of Minemerg, located at an altitude of about 8000 feet at the southern entrance to the Borzil Pass over the Western Himalayas, and Sonamerg (altitude 8650 feet or 2640 meters) just below the Zogi La Pass, both of them surrounded by rich meadows on the northern rim of the Vale of Kashmir.1313