474 A NEW JOURNEY SOUTHWARDS.
putra derive by far the greater portion of their volumes from the northern flank of the range.
We pitched Camp XXXVIII in the outlet of the glen out of which the last of the three rivers emerges upon the flat latitudinal valley. The absolute altitude here was 4929 m., while the middle river, the largest of the three, lies as low as 4892 m. The grazing at this new camp was thick and full of sap, although short and rather hard. At the foot of the hills on the left bank quite a string of springs gushed out, and of these some formed tiny basins of clear water, rimmed round with fresh green grass and moss. In most cases the diameter did not exceed one meter, but they were half a meter deep. In vertical section they generally presented the appearance shown in fig. 366. During the night they usually became covered with a thin sheet of ice. There was here any quantity of yak-dung. A little lower down we came upon a brood of quite young wild-geese, and partridges also were abundant. In a word, this was one of the best localities we had seen for a long while. The hills on the bank screened us against the wind.
During this stage we did not find hard rock in a single spot. The weather was unusually good. Sometimes we even felt it oppressively hot, though at I p.m. we had a passing hail-shower. On the following day the hail was far more violent,
and in a trice the ground was whitened over; but within an hour the hail was all gone again..
It was at this camp, Camp XXXVIII, that we first came into contact with the Tibetans. They were three yak-hunters, who with a couple of horses and a score of tame yaks, were encamped a few kilometers to the north-east, at the foot of a spur of the mountains on the right bank of the river. Unfortunately no sooner did they become aware of our presence than they hurriedly disappeared, and we conse-
IIIF Color HighRes
