Proceedings of the royal Scottish geographical society

Itinerant merchants have been an integral part of world trade since at least the time of the earliest Silk Route from China to the West. Today a group of traders from Nepal maintain this tradition. Today their travel is by economy jet and inexpensive train. The countries involved are primarily thos6 with historic ties to the mercenary Ghurka forces under the British. The traders are well organized and limited to a few‐families, primarily from the Pokhara Valley in Nepal. Their goods begin with products from Nepal and Tibet, but they also move goods gathered along their route. They represent a charming anomaly in the modern world, a touch of the old Asia.     

Mountains

Glacier ice from the south and west invaded upper Strathspey forming an ice sheet not less than 700m thick as it submerged the entire landscape. When the ice sheet wasted away, its meltwaters created complex sequences of fluvioglacial landforms. During the final stages of deglaciation, deposits left by the wasting ice mass were eroded by water, terraces spread out, gorges cut and the broad, low‐lying corridor on both sides of the River Spey was formed. There is evidence of a later, local readvance of the glaciers in three of the tributary valleys.     

Continental excursion, 1928, of the Glasgow university school of geography

An assessment is made of developments in agriculture and fish farming within the Integrated Development Programme (I.D.P.) for the Western Isles. The five‐year I.D.P., which was launched in 1982, was partly funded by the E.E.C. The extent of investment in agriculture and fish farming is reviewed. The growth of employment and output in fish farming is reported, and various agricultural indicators such as trends in livestock numbers and performance are assessed. Various conclusions and lessons that can be drawn from the experience of the Western Isles I.D.P. are discussed. The paper is a summary of a detailed assessment recently carried out by the author for the Highlands and Islands Development Board.