Peking to Lhasa : vol.1 / Page 325 (Color Image)

0325	Peking to Lhasa : vol.1

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Pereira not to go there as he had intended. The

illness, of course, was a sham, and Pereira, when

he was told that no messenger had yet been sent

to the Kalon Lama at Chamdo to obtain leave

for him to proceed from Batang to Kanze by

Tibet, said that if he did not get a reply at

Batang in ten days he would write to Lhasa to

complain.

Pa-mu-tang (Bum), 15-1- miles, was reached on

September 18. Pereira's caravan had swelled

from his seventeen animals and eight extra for the

Batang Mission to sixty-eight animals, besides

some pedestrians. The road lay over high rolling

grassy downs. There were few trees and the path

was stony. At 31 miles the Dong-ti La, 12,998

feet, was crossed. It is an open pass on the top of

the downs. Beyond it is a slight drop and then

a rise to the Bum La, 13,054 feet, at 51 miles.

At 71 miles the descent becomes steeper to the

Tamba-Larji grass valley, where there were some

nomad tents. This open grass country and nomad

tents and flocks reminded Pereira of North Tibet,

and it was now cold enough for a greatcoat to be

worn. At 9 miles the road lay down the Bum

valley, which is a half to three-quarters of a mile

wide, with some crops among the grass and shrub.

Pa-mu-tang, or Bum, has twenty-four scattered

houses at an elevation of 11,090 feet. There had

been fifty Chinese soldiers here, but they had

retreated a month previously after their trouble

with the Gunka Lama.

Continuing down the Bum valley on September

19, Pereira, at 14/- miles, reached Ganra on the

Yangtze. At 2/ miles the valley narrows to a

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