lection of dogs which we brought with
us. The dog that Tommy had left at home was of course the familiar type
of square-jowled sturdy monster, who, by a process of natural selection
and survival of the fittest, has been evolved out of many types, and now
rules supreme in cantonment barracks. His master at Lhassa had consoled
himself with another sort, and it was a touching sight to see great
bearded men sometimes leading, but as often as not carrying, on the
march dainty little lap-dogs, of kinds that resembled the Pomeranian,
the Skye terrier, or the King Charles' spaniel. One or two Tibetan
mastiffs--more like huge Welsh collies than mastiffs--also accompanied
us.

At Gyantse we were halted for a few days, upon one of which the G.O.C.
held his farewell parade, making us a sympathetic speech which will be
remembered by all of us. Then we marched past. My lot was to command a
squad of veterans whose duties for years had been confined to the supply
of the army. We got along somehow, more by innate intelligence than
knowledge of drill, going through various giddy evolutions in no
particular formation and by the shortest cut, and arriving at the
saluting base aided only by the bump of locality. There of course we
braced ourselves and marched past, and turned our eyes sharply to the
right as though we had never left the barrack square.

From Gyantse onwards I was in the first column, and thus missed certain
hardships. It was nice bracing weather. We had cool fine days, at night
twenty degrees of frost and often biting cold winds that took the skin
off the nose and chapped the lips and the lobes of the ear, but were on
the whole salubrious. The same weather was with us all the way, up
through Kangma and the Red Idol gorge to Kalatso, past Dochen and into
the Tuna plain, over the Tang-La, into Phari and down through the Gautsa
glens, where the pine-forests smelt of Indian hill stations, and into
Chumbi. As we reached Chumbi the clouds were gathering.

That night, with the outer fly of my tent taken out of store and erected
over me, I went to bed secure in its extra protection, thinking casually
that it might perhaps rain in the night. In the early morning I was
woken with a crash, and felt a great weight squeezing my whole body, but
leaving my head clear. Striking a light I found the upright tent pole
near my feet broken in two. Looking through a corner of the tent I saw
the ground all covered with snow, and realised that t