Peking to Lhasa : vol.1 / Page 114 (Color Image)

0114	Peking to Lhasa : vol.1

80 PEKING TO LHASA

another range, the Niu-t'ou Shan, was begun.

The path lay up a narrow, winding, rather steep

valley, the small stream of which had constantly

to be crossed by logs. Pereira halted for the

night in a miserable inn at 9200 feet. There was

one long draughty room with doors opening out,

and he was frozen with cold even though he was

not far from the fire in the centre of the room.

He reached the summit of the pass, 10,410 feet,

after 2 miles of steep climb over very slippery

snow on the following day. Then he had a very

steep descent again over slippery frozen snow

for 5 miles. So far the weather had been the

coldest he had met. The morning had been

gloomy and misty and bitterly cold. The warm

sunshine of the high plains of Tibet had been left

behind. And the Niu-t'ou Shan, though 5000 feet

lower, was much more difficult to cross than the

Pa-lang-Shan. But in the afternoon the weather

turned much milder and Pereira finished his march

at Ts'ao-p'u-p'ing at an altitude of only 5310 feet,

the lowest he had been at for a long time.

The next day was again gloomy, with a succes-

sion of ascents and descents. He would ascend

to mist, frost and snow and descend to damp and

chills. He passed through several big Chinese

villages and the valley was fertile. He saw a

wretched thief stripped to the waist, with his

arms suspended at right angles and fastened to

a beam, whilst two lictors marched behind. This,

remarks Pereira, is another form of punishment

which Europeans might have to endure if placed

under Chinese law.

Kwan-hsien, 2550 feet, was reached on January

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