172 IN TIBET AND CHINESE TURKESTAN.
accomplished in Tibet during the previous year, with the work on which I was now engaged, and to carry the triangulation across the Kwen Lun range to Camp 73 on the plateau above Polu. I wished also to ascertain whether any feasible route led from Polu towards Central Tibet. I had often heard that there was such a route, and that it had formerly been used by Tibetans, but this was stoutly denied by the Polu people whom I questioned
LOADING THE DONKEYS.
on the subject. Within the memory of the oldest inhabitant of Polu, none but Ladakis had come across the mountains to Polu, and of Ladakis only the few who had accompanied Carey and Dagleish. The people of Kara Sai said that, the only route into the mountains was by the Tolan Khoja valley, and they alleged that they had never seen any people come that way. To be absolutely certain that there is no route practicable for
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