Peking to Lhasa : vol.1 / Page 155 (Color Image)

0155	Peking to Lhasa : vol.1

THE START FOR TIBET 117

higher than Mount Everest, and certainly it must

be a giant. Pereira says : " It towers above

everything else in its snow-clad grandeur and

must be well over 25,000 feet high as I was at an

altitude of 13,000 feet. It looked 30 miles away

but was very likely 70 miles off to the south-

east." By the Chinese the mountain is called

Ma-chi Hsieh-Shan.

The next day two more mules collapsed as

there had been practically nothing for them to

feed on. And on May 28 the party crossed

Tung-ri Pass, 13,867 feet, and a little farther on

had a beautiful view of the Tung-ri-tso Nor, or

lake of a thousand hills. Lying between hills and

of a beautiful blue, the lake reminded Pereira of

Italy. The Mongol name for it is Tosu Nor. The

descent from the pass was easy and the party

made their way among low hills, across a gravelly

valley and through grass hills to the broad Ch'ang-

shih-t'ou valley. Here there was good pasturage,

and he halted by an encampment of Yü-shu

Tibetan merchants of the Gaba tribe, who were the

first inhabitants he had met since leaving Ta-ko-pa.

These Tibetans were as usual very quiet and very

curious about Pereira and his tent. They had

with them about six hundred yaks and were

preparing to move.

Thunderstorms and a heavy downpour of rain

made it cold for this time of year, and the thermo-

meter' fell to 38'; and the following morning a

bitter north-west wind sprang up and the rain

turned to sleet. Pereira, after crossing the Ch'ang

shih-t'ou valley, passed through a gap in the

Ch'ang-shih-t'ou Shan, a range which ran south-

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