Peking to Lhasa : vol.1 / Page 152 (Color Image)

0152	Peking to Lhasa : vol.1

114 PEKING TO LHASA

after passing through low sandy hills and

crossing another small cultivated valley in which

were three or four small Chinese villages and

beyond this some low hills, he reached the

fertile irrigated Ch'a-pu-ch'a plain, which is

some 3 miles wide and stretches 6 miles to the

north and 12 miles to the south to the Yellow

River. Ch'a-pu-ch'a has some 85 families of

whom 25 are Chinese and the rest Tibetan.

The houses were of mud with mud walls round

the enclosures. There was a Chinese camp with

200 men about 4 miles to the south.

Gung Nor, the " Egg Lake ", 171- miles, was

reached on May 15. After descending the Ch'a-

pu-ch'a valley for 4 miles Pereira struck south

of west for 10 miles across a great grass plain,

where he saw several herds of cattle and some

horses but only one solitary Tibetan. On the

plain were also several gazelle, some hares, red-

legged partridges and many lizards, while on the

lake were some wild duck. On the banks of the

lake there was a big flock of sheep under the care

of a Tibetan woman. But Pereira was surprised

at the absence of Tibetan tents : he saw only one.

The Tibetan sheep he bought were very tough

and appeared to him to have been trained for a

Marathon race ! The weather was fine and warm,

but there was a strong south-west wind blowing,

filling the tent with sand.

Leaving the Gung Nor on May 16 he passed

over a great plain stretching away for 10 or

12 miles to a high range of hills to the south

This plain was mostly covered with scrub and

small streams running south flowed across it.

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