Peking to Lhasa : vol.1 / Page 226 (Color Image)

0226	Peking to Lhasa : vol.1

170 PEKING TO LHASA

to the river, which at 18 miles narrows and winds

through a beautiful little wood. This wood Hue

describes as a thick fir forest, but Pereira says it

was like an English wood with undergrowth and

trees of all sorts. Beyond the wood the river is

crossed by two rickety log bridges. Alando is a

poor village of nine families, on a narrow strip in a

narrow winding valley. There had been frost in

the night but the day was quite hot.

Of the march next day Hue had spoken in

exaggerated terms, and parts indeed were shock-

ing ; if it could be called a road it was the worst Pereira had seen in 40,000 or 50,000 miles

of travel in the Far East. But there was nothing

alarming in it. The scenery was magnificent, the route lying between fir-covered hills 2000 feet high

and through delightful woods. Leaving the Sia

Chu valley the path turns first northerly and then

westerly through the Nok Chu defile. The Nok

Chu, a foaming torrent, is crossed twice by log

bridges and the path zigzags up and down the mountain - side never more than 400 feet above

it and sometimes alongside it. Between 11 and

18 miles there is some very bad going over

rocks and boulders which have been falling for

centuries and are of all shapes except smooth. At

121 miles is A-lan-ga, a hamlet of three houses on

a rather more open piece of sloping ground. A

mile farther the defile narrows to a gorge. At 19-i miles a more open valley is reached with a

sloping grass belt and some trees, and the hills are

less precipitous. Beyond this the Ja-bu Chu, a

torrent 3 feet deep, is crossed by a log bridge and

there is a steep climb of 150 feet to A-la-j a-güng,

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