They Sing Wild Chants As They Picket
Their Sheep In Long Double Lines At Night, And With Their Savage
Mastiffs Sleep Unsheltered Under The Frosty Skies Under The Lee Of
Their Piled-Up Saddlebags.
On three nights I camped beside their
caravans, and walked round their orderly lines of sheep and their
neat
Walls of saddlebags; and, far from showing any discourtesy or
rude curiosity, they held down their fierce dogs and exhibited their
ingenious mode of tethering their animals, and not one of the many
articles which my servants were in the habit of leaving outside the
tents was on any occasion abstracted. The dogs, however, were less
honest than their masters, and on one night ran away with half a
sheep, and I should have fared poorly had not Mr. - shot some grey
doves.
Marches across sandy and gravelly valleys, and along arid mountain-
sides spotted with a creeping furze and cushions of a yellow-green
moss which seems able to exist without moisture, fords of the Sumgyal
and Tserap rivers, and the crossing of the Lachalang Pass at an
altitude of 17,500 feet in severe frost, occupied several uneventful
days. Of the three lofty passes on this route, the Toglang, which is
higher, and the Baralacha, which is lower, are featureless billows of
gravel, over which a carriage might easily be driven. Not so is the
Lachalang, though its well-made zigzags are easy for laden animals.
The approach to it is fantastic, among precipitous mountains of red
sandstone, and red rocks weathered into pillars, men's heads, and
numerous groups of gossipy old women from thirty to fifty feet high,
in flat hats and long circular cloaks! Entering by red gates of rock
into a region of gigantic mountains, and following up a crystal
torrent, the valley narrowing to a gorge, and the gorge to a chasm
guarded by nearly perpendicular needles of rock flaming in the
westering sun, we forded the river at the chasm's throat, and camped
on a velvety green lawn just large enough for a few tents, absolutely
walled in by abrupt mountains 18,000 and 19,000 feet in height. Long
after the twilight settled down on us, the pinnacles above glowed in
warm sunshine, and the following morning, when it was only dawn
below, and the still river pools were frozen and the grass was white
with hoar-frost, the morning sun reddened the snow-peaks and kindled
into vermilion the red needles of Lachalang. That camping-ground
under such conditions is the grandest and most romantic spot of the
whole journey.
Verdureless and waterless stretches, in crossing which our poor
animals were two nights without food, brought us to the glacier-blue
waters of the Serchu, tumbling along in a deep broad gash, and
farther on to a lateral torrent which is the boundary between Rupchu,
tributary to Kashmir, and Lahul or British Tibet, under the rule of
the Empress of India. The tents were ready pitched in a grassy
hollow by the river; horses, cows, and goats were grazing near them,
and a number of men were preparing food.
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