54 IN TIBET AND CHINESE TURKESTAN.
sleeping-place, and, after considerable experience in various parts of the world, I have no sympathy with those who regard as a hardship the necessity for this use of mother earth. Travellers should not put themselves to needless inconvenience. Captain Younghusband gives good advice when he says, " Travel as comfortably as circumstances will permit," and comforts should, when possible, be extended to the subordinate members of the caravan. But often the inconvenience .of unwieldy baggage far outweighs the benefit which the cumbrous articles can give, and the luxuries which can most easily be dispensed with are such things as camp-beds, chairs and tables.
The river beside which we had camped was the Damtang Lungpa. Near Camp 35 it had sunk so far into the ground that the water could not be reached, but here it had a fairly broad channel and we had no anxiety on the score of water. As we proceeded along its right bank, we passed numerous disused workings (probably for gold) all very close together, and many of them communicating with each other. The openings were very small, varying from about two and a half to four feet, and the depth of the deepest shafts was about or (at least in one case) rather more than twenty feet. Hares were plentiful at this place, and from the general appearance it was clear that the digging had been abandoned for several years. Further on, after a short march we found that the river again disappeared within the porous earth, and, for the sake of obtaining water, we had to camp. The aspect of the surrounding country was gloomy, and the lofty mountains seemed to bar the way towards the large Tibetan encampment of which we had been informed. In the direction we proposed to take we could find no indication of water, nor even of moisture, till Pike, having made a long reconnaissance, saw, from
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