A SUMMER IN HIGH ASIA. 



villages. Nearer the river are big grassy stretches, 

 on which were feeding innumerable ponies and 

 donkeys. 



For some miles our road lay through the fields 

 belonging to the village of Chushot, which were at 

 this time green with barley and bright with flowers, 

 whilst on the opposite side of the river we could see 

 the Gonpa of Tikzay, perched as usual on a high 

 rock, and many villages, while on both sides were 

 stony mountains rising to the snows above. Ahead 

 of us, and far away was the range that separates 

 Ladakh from Chinese Thibet, crossed by the (to 

 Europeans) mysterious and untrodden road to 

 Lhassa. Why this first camping place should be 

 called " Golab Bagh " (garden of roses) I cannot 

 imagine, as anything less like a rose-garden I never 

 saw ; it consists merely of a swamp in which grow 

 a quantity of willow-trees, and so wet was it that 

 we had some difficulty in finding a dry spot on 

 which to pitch my tent. 



On the following day our road took us to 

 Machalang, pronounced " Marchalong," evidently 

 an invitation to proceed ; and the way led over 

 sandy plains with considerable cultivation in places. 

 Particularly did I notice the entrance of a nalah 

 running southwards, which, from the length of the 

 piles of " Mani " stones which bordered the path 

 approaching it, evidently was the road to some 

 large village. I noticed this, but not having a map 

 of these parts, I did not then know that the sacred 



us 



