agreed to accompany me as far as the
Maium Pass, so that my party, including myself, now was reduced to only
five men.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 7: _Chibbis_--also frequently pronounced _Chabis_.]

CHAPTER XIV

ANOTHER DISASTER

Everything promised well when, with my reduced party, I started toward
the north-east, first skirting the lake for three and a quarter miles,
then ascending over the barren hill ranges in an easterly direction for
a distance of twelve miles. The journey was uneventful. My four men
seemed in the best of spirits. We descended to a plain where water and
grass could be found. Having come upon a camping-ground with a
protecting wall, such as are usually put up by Tibetans at their
halting-places, we made ourselves comfortable for the night,
notwithstanding the high wind and a passing storm of hail and rain,
which drenched us to the skin. The thermometer during the night went
down to 34 deg.

At sunrise I started to make a reconnaissance from the top of a high
hill wherefrom I could get a bird's-eye view of a great portion of the
surrounding country. It was of the utmost importance for me to find out
which would be the easiest way to get through the intricate succession
of hills and mountains, and I also wished to ascertain the exact
direction of a large river to the north of us, which discharged its
waters into the Mansarowar. I started alone. A three and a half miles'
climb brought me to the summit of a hill, 16,480 feet, where I was able
to ascertain all I wished to know. I returned to camp, and we proceeded
on a course of 73 deg. 30', crossing over a pass 16,450 feet high. Then
we found ourselves in front of a hill, the summit of which resembled a
fortress, with flying-prayers flapping in the wind. At the foot of the
hill were some twenty ponies grazing.

[Illustration: A NATURAL CASTLE]

With the aid of my telescope I made sure that what at first appeared to
be a castle was nothing but a work of nature. Apparently no one was
concealed up there. The ponies, however, indicated the presence of men,
and we had to proceed with caution. In fact, rounding the next hill, we
discerned in the grassy valley below a number of black tents, two
hundred yaks, and about a thousand sheep. We kept well out of sight
behind the hill. We went a long way around it, and at last descended
into an extensive valley. The river described a semicircle through this
valley, close to the southern hill range,