CHAP. XV FIREWOOD IN LADAK 245 



back, and a blanket on this, and with a couple of looped 

 ropes for stirrups the gear was considered complete. As 

 a matter of fact the animal proved of little use, as I 

 could not ride it far uphill without the saddle sliding 

 down towards the tail, nor at all downhill without send- 

 ing the gear over its witherless shoulders on to its neck, 

 and there was practically no level ground. The fixing 

 up of the pony and changing from the yak to a coolie 

 wasted so much time that we did not start till 6.30 a.m. 



We went up a nala, trending nearly due east, and 

 kept along the high ground on the northern side. The 

 country consisted of rolling hills covered for the most 

 part with gravel and shingle, but in many places only the 

 bare baked clay came to the surface. Here and there 

 were patches of a dark green, scrubby, thorny bush, called 

 by the Ladakis tramsa, which grows about a foot high, 

 and is a most unpleasant thing to fall into. The flower 

 is yellow, and obviously of the pea family. Mixed with 

 the tramsa is a sage-green shrub called dapshang, greedily 

 eaten by ponies, the roots affording inferior firewood. 



In this comparatively rainless land, the plants which 

 contrive to grow seem to have acquired the faculty of 

 doing without water, and also of gathering nutriment from 

 stones. The result is that the roots are always as dry as 

 a bone, and afford, with the exception of the droppings 

 of kyang and yak, the only fuel obtainable in a country 

 where trees are almost unknown. 



The method of proceeding was this. The two 

 shikaris, being infinitely quicker than I was at detecting 

 game, walked slowly ahead some 10 to 50 yards apart, 

 according to the nature of the ground, moving at a 



