224 IN TIBET AND CHINESE TURKESTAN..
head of man or pony was overtaxed. The descent on the south side was so steep that all the animals had to %be -• unloaded and .the baggage Ca.rried down by the men, while. - the ponies, with some assistante, crawled and slid down. the slope. The camels, being quite. unequal to the labourr of crossing the gravel slope, wee Macle.to ford the river:: and rejoined me further. on. The. saine camelman here informed me that he was a stranger in these .parts, but had heard that beyond the first small side-valley, in which 'there was a stream, grass was nowhere to be found. The general appearance of the country tended to confirm this statement; and I resolved to accept it as true. In the
side-valley there was._ a stream, now frozen over with
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Slippery ice, which the _baggage ponies had no little trouble in crossing., and a few score yards up .this valley there was a spot large enough, when clearè-d'and :levelled, tQ accommodate two small tents pitched 'close -together. When the ponies were freed from their loaas. they. set out in-search of fodder, and, after forcing their- :way with difficulty through dense jungle, they found some tall, coarse kamish grass containing little nourishment.. • EArly in the morning we were again on the march, Ram Singh and I going ahead of the caravan to reconnoitre beyond the point which Abdul had reached. • For some distance we had no difficulty in advancing, but at one place the route was almost impassable. The river was too deep to ford and the ice was too thin to bear the weight -Of the-ponies, while, on the left bank where we were travelling, the rocky mountain-side was so steep that all the loads had to be carried for about two hundred yards by the then, .who had also to help the ponies acrogs the steep and slippery incline. A little beyond this place we. passed through some abandoned fields in which there was -a peculiar tower, probably a former watch-tower, built of rubble on the top of a huge boulder. The name of this
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