difficulties. Further, in addition to the main channel which was the
chief obstacle, there was a second channel beyond it, which, though not
wide and sometimes fordable, constituted an additional delay to the
crossing. As the last boatload crossed, the river was rising fast, and I
am told that the amount of spare material left at the ends of the long
rope, which was the main factor in swinging the large boats across
without letting them drift down-stream, could be measured by the inch.
Another inch or so in the rise of the river, and a corresponding
widening of the stream, would have left that rope all too short for the
work it had to accomplish, and our crossing might have been
indefinitely delayed, for afterwards the river still continued rising.

We left the Tsangpo fairly well stocked with provisions. During the
march of forty-five miles to Lhassa we were informed that we should come
across all that we required. The road from North Chaksam followed the
course of the river for three miles; then, taking a sharp turn to the
left, entered another wide valley watered by another river, the course
of which we were to trace up-stream as far as Lhassa.

On the first day out of Chaksam I had rather an amusing experience of
the value set by a Tibetan on a 'chit' written by a British officer. In
this respect the Tibetan out-herods Herod. India is the land of the
'chit.' The word is an abbreviation of 'chitthi,' a letter, and in its
shortened form is specially applied to a certificate of good character
given to a servant or to any pass in guarantee of respectability on any
simple recognition of services rendered. A native barber in India who
has cut your hair three times will ask for a 'chit' as a guarantee that
he has done so. But the Tibetan, whether sophisticated lama or simple
peasant, was even more susceptible to the charms of a 'chit,' those
charms of course possessing for him something of the mystical, since he
never understood its contents. Any 'chit' was apparently regarded as a
sort of talisman, and was displayed by the owner with pride and
confidence to every one, especially the next British officer who came
his way.

On that day I was sent ahead with the advance guard to see what supplies
each village contained. I had no transport with me nor means of
collecting the supplies, and through an oversight had taken no one with
me to send back with messages to the rear as to the result of my
discoveries in each village.