Peking to Lhasa : vol.1 / Page 170 (Color Image)

0170	Peking to Lhasa : vol.1

126 PEKING TO LHASA

Pereira tried to pay the owner of the room he

had occupied, but he would not accept payment.

Pereira therefore gave him five squares of red

cloth as a present. His baggage having arrived

on June 21 on yaks and with it nine hundred

taels intact, he resumed his journey on the 22nd,

following down the Hsiu-we Chu valley for 12

miles and passing two monasteries, a few Tibetan

farms and one small Tibetan village with some

patches of barley cultivation. He then reached

the Yangtze, or Di Chu, here called the T'ung-

t'ien Ho by the Chinese, and followed it up for

12 mile to the ferry.

The Yangtze river is here 80 yards wide

and very deep, with a strong current and small

rapids. The party had to cross it in seven skin

coracles, each paddled over by one or two Tibetans.

These vessels are very light, and the current sweeps

them down till the paddlers can make the final

effort and get through. The eight horses and six

mules had to swim across, most of them with the

head held by a rope from a coracle. Luckily it

was a really hot summer's day and the water not

too cold, and all got over safely.

The hills about here were from 700 to 1000

feet high. One hill to the south-east rose about

1500 feet above the valley and had some snow

on it.

Jye-kundo was reached at last on June 23.

The way led down the right bank of the Yangtze

for 5 miles. A Tibetan village of eight houses

and a little cultivation was passed and also a

willow, a fir and two or three other trees, the

first Pereira had seen since Ta-ho-pa. He then

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