CHAP. XX KILMONG TO KYUNGYAM 363 



some curious hot springs. The water was just too warm 

 for the hand, and gave out steam as it bubbled up. 

 It came out of crevices in white rock of some kind, and 

 little jets rose about 4 or 5 inches above the level of the 

 basins it occupied. There were some two or three of 

 these basins, and the hot water was at different degrees 

 of ebullition. From the hillside above, also, small trickles 

 of hot water came down. The people seem to make no 

 use of these hot springs. 



When it was getting dusk we reached a ford opposite 

 the village of Kilmong, and as there was a little grass 

 on our bank, and no likelihood of reaching a better place 

 before it was pitch dark, I resolved to camp here. We 

 had done 27 miles. 



I sent a man over to get wood and arrange, if 

 possible, for fresh ponies for the morning, and then 

 pitched my tent by the moonlight. As it was too late for 

 dinner to be cooked, I had a tin of hotch-potch soup 

 heated, and dined on that, with scones, butter, and cheese. 



On the morning of the 17th we were early afoot, the 

 thermometer standing at 43° F. when I got up. The 

 previous morning at Nimu it had been 42°. The 

 Kilmong men changed some of the ponies, but not all. 



Opposite the village of Aikeke, about 1 1 miles on, 

 there are a few fields and one house. Here I stopped 

 to breakfast, and had an enjoyable meal under a large 

 tamarisk-tree by a small irrigation channel. The Kil- 

 mong men transferred the ponies to men of this village 

 and went back. 



The road most of this day was hard on the animals, 

 there being a great deal of up and down and mostly over 



