Peking to Lhasa : vol.1 / Page 324 (Color Image)

0324	Peking to Lhasa : vol.1

240 PEKING TO LHASA

to Ngu-chao was easy. This was a hamlet of

five houses in a small valley with some cultivation.

Its elevation is 11,984 feet.

A gentian, which Pereira had found so common

in Tibet at 13,000 feet, he saw again on the Chia

La. It is the gentian nubigena. There was also

a little yellow flower, rather pulpy, which grows

in marshy places.

There was considerable fear among the Chinese

escort of raids on the next day's march, and they

wanted to get ten men as escort. The Gunka

Lama's men had fled into the hills and might be

dangerous. But Pereira thought two additional

men would be sufficient, and proceeded on Sep-

tember 17 to Chia-hi-ting, 1q miles. The road

lay down the valley, joining the Chung-tsa stream

at 3i- miles, and crossing it by a poor bridge on

two piles at 42 miles, at an elevation of 9978 feet.

Half a mile beyond is the village of Chung-tsa,

consisting of twelve dilapidated houses, with

another twenty scattered about. This is the

Tsong-en on the maps in Chinese Chung-ai. The

Gunka Lama lives at the Sogong Gompa, lower

down the river. The road continues up a small

valley between low shrub-covered hills to the

watershed at 14i- miles, and then along level

ground amid fir trees with open grass spots, and

farther on an open plateau with the Mai-ya stream

below flowing south among grassy fir - covered

hills. Chia-ni-ting, 12,209 feet, consists of thirty

scattered houses on a sloping hill-side.

Here a representative of the Markham Ti-jei

was awaiting Pereira. He said the Ti-jei was sick

at Lhandu Di, just over the border, and asked

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