REACH THE INDUS 167 



At Tso-kar the thermometer at seven o'clock in the 

 evening in the tent was 4G° ; at 5 a.m. it was 12'^ 

 below freezing point, but the cold was not disagreeable. 

 At this latter camp, Ealdong by name, it was G0° inside 

 the tent at 8.30 r.-"\r., and 38° when I started in the 

 morning. These iigures will give some idea of the climate 

 in these parts at this season. 



I continued down valley along the Pi'iga stream. At 

 8 A.M. I came to a tent belonging to an E.E. from 

 Eoorkee, who had arrived here two days before. He was out 

 after game, but left a note " for the two gentlemen coming 

 from Puga," asking them to stop at his tent and have 

 breakfast, or anything else. I had some tea, and stayed 

 half an hour. Yakiib, my servant, found a fellow-towns- 

 man in the gentleman's body-servant, and the cook recog- 

 nised me as his quondam master in the plains. The 

 Sapper, in his note, mentioned that he was going to Hanle ; 

 and that, as far as lie knew, three men were on the road 

 to Chang-chen-mo ; this was not a promising prospect for 

 me. I am sorry I missed seeing the hospitable sportsman. 

 I now thank him again for his kind note and the infor- 

 mation it contained. 



Went on along the stream and reached the Indus in 

 an hour— old Aba- Sin, " the father of waters," as the 

 Pathcins call him. A few years before I had crossed his 

 deep, sullen, and altogether too wrathful stream at Bi'mji, 

 on the road to Gilgit — how different was his aspect here ! 

 This is his innocent boyhood — small, mild, and gently 

 playful ; his infancy is passed higher up, in the pure 

 bosom of the Kailas. We all know his lusty manhood 

 when he rolls his accumulated strength, tearing away the 

 land in the season of his temporary madness, along the 

 level plains of the Panj;ib and of Sind. The path turns up 

 along the left bank of the stream, and after a short walk 



