88 IN TIBET AND CHINESE TURXESTAN.
to regain breath, a circumstance which affected Pike a good deal, and to nie was very distressing. Here Sanman, as at earlier stages of our journey, showed himself lazy and disobedient, causing more trouble than his assistance was worth. He would have been much improved by a sound beating, which neither Pike nor I cared to inflict.
Descending the Nabo La, we entered a narrow, rather steep, and very stony valley, from which we passed into a broad valley almost destitute of grass, where the mules and ponies had to subsist on a few handfuls of corn and the little water that was not frozen. Fortunately, as we advanced we found a better supply of grass and water. Here we halted for a day and I completed the system of triangulation by connecting it with Tartary Peaks, Nos. 1 and '2, of the . Great Trigonometrical. Survey of India. This task I had fortunately accomplished before the theodolite was damaged by an accident. At the hill station here, on October 19th, the cold west wind was so violent that the instrument was blown over, though large stones had been piled round the stand. Leno had partially broken its fall so that it was not irretrievably destroyed, but it was so damaged that further work with it was out of the question. During four months the theodolite had provided me with the means of interesting employment, for few days or nights had passed without my taking either terrestrial or astronomical observations, and now, to mÿ regret, this occupation was gone.
Had it not been for the cutting wind, we might have
lingered and admired the panorama of majestic mountains
which extended before us, many of their summits being
clothed with perpetual snow. At least three of the peaks which we observed were over 21,000 feet in height, and doubtless others were as high. Within the depression which they enclosed lay, Dyap Cho, or Lake Treb, as
IIIF Color HighRes
