272 GEOGRAPHICAL RESULTS OF THE TIBET MISSION. 



haps even greater sufferings than fell to us. But gradually, as 

 week by week went by, the temperature rose. The military prepara- 

 tions in rear were completed by General Macdonald, and early in 

 April we marched down to Gyantse. Of the military incidents on 

 the way I Avill say nothing. It was the deepest disappointment to 

 me that fighting should have been necessitated, and the Tibetan 

 generals were as little anxious for it as I was, but they had impossible 

 orders from Lassa — orders not to fight, not to negotiate, and not to 

 let ns proceed. Unless, therefore, we were prepared to abandon the 

 whole object of the mission, fighting Avas inevitable. 



Arrived at Gyantse on April 11, we found a fiat open valley 5 or 

 G miles wide, dotted all over with flourishing hamlets and intersected 

 by numerous water channels. Round each hamlet, along the water 

 channels, and by the bed of the river were willow and poplar trees 

 just showing signs of bursting into foliage. The banks were covered 

 with masses of iris plants, which later on were to flower out into 

 sheets of purple. The piercing cold of the Tuna uplands was left 

 behind. There was only a slight touch of frost at night, while the 

 days were beautifully fine and bright ; and we were looking forward 

 to a restful summer of peaceful negotiation, when suddenly ominous 

 clouds began to collect around us, and early on the morning of May 

 5 we were aAvoke by wild shouts and firing, and, looking out of our 

 tents, we saw Tibetans firing into us through a wall only 10 yards off. 

 How Major Murray and his gurkhas warded off the attack; how 

 Colonel Brander defended the post for nearly two months against 

 the Tibetans, who had now invested us, and how General Macdonald 

 eventually returned with a relieving force, drove back the Tibetans, 

 and captured the jong, has been told elsewhere. Geographicall}^, the 

 important point is that the refusal of the Tibetans to negotiate at 

 Gyantse necessitatedd our advance to Lassa. On July 14 we set out, 

 much impeded by heavy rain, and soon set aside the delusion that 

 Tibet is a rainless country. Well on till September we had frequent 

 rains, and the size of the rivers and side streams was quite sufficient 

 evidence that this part of Tibet receives — probably up the Brah- 

 maputra Valley — a quite considerable rainfall, say between 20 and 30 

 inches, at a rough guess. 



We crossed the easy Karo-la Pass, about 10,000 feet, where Colonel 

 Brander had fought his gallant little action early in May, and the 

 next day debouched on to the most lovely lake I have ever seen — the 

 Yamdok Tso. In shape it was like a rough ring, surrounding what 

 is practically an island; and in color it varied to very shade of 

 violet and turquoise blue and green. At times it would be the 

 blue of heaven, reflecting the intense Tibetan sky. Then, as some 

 cloud passed over it, or as, marching along, we beheld it at some 

 different angle, it would flash back rays of the deep greeny blue of 



