FROM TONKIN TO INDIA 



fish by an ingenious artifice. A small backwater in which 

 quantities of spindrift had collected was barred, the pith of a 

 plant was picked like oakum and cast into the pool, and the 

 fish entangled in the mixture of foam and fibre were taken by 

 hand and net. To their own menu the Kioutses added a 

 mess of boiled fern leaves. Our faithful fellows bore their 

 privations most unselfishly ; they had already been on half 

 rations — two porringers of rice swollen with water per man ; but 

 they were only concerned to lessen my anxiety, and sustained 

 the greatest appearance of cheerfulness. To fill up the measure 

 of this distressing day, we had to deplore the death of " Diamai." 

 For some time the poor beast had followed with difficulty, 

 famished for lack of the meat which we could no longer procure. 

 After vain efforts to contend against the stream, which kept 

 sweeping his lean carcass back, he gave up, and lay down to 

 die under a bush. I reproached myself for having taken him 

 away from his pastures and snow. He was the second dog of 

 the breed which I had lost ; they seem unable to exist far from 

 the icy cold and rocks of the uplands of Thibet. 



5th (November). — We had to get somewhere. We had nothing 

 left to put between our teeth. So into the torrent we stiffly 

 lowered ourselves aoain and bent to the collar. Rain from 



o 



above was soon added to the water below, and we enjoyed a double 

 bath. The stream was wider and less swift than before, more 

 like a water alley through the midst of the deep forest, where 

 unbroken gloom lent solemnity to the scene. After many 

 orrievous hours of toil, it was with feelings of reviving cheer 

 that we issued from this oppressive confinement to raft over a 

 broad reach, and committed ourselves to firmer ground. And 

 when at last we extricated ourselves from the tangled woods, 



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