318 A DEPUTATION FROM THE JONGPEN. 



clouds chilled one to the very marrow, and I had a dreadful 

 headache to boot. 



The watershed here deserves notice. Speaking figura- 

 tively, if, when standing beside the cairn on the pass, you 

 throw a snowball towards the west, it melts into a tributary 

 of the Ganges, and so into the Bay of Bengal. If you fling 

 another towards the east, it will melt into the Sutlej — here 

 flowing almost northward beyond the pass — be carried back 

 by that river westward through the Himalayan chain, and so 

 find its way eventually down the Indus into the Arabian 

 Sea. 



After getting half-frozen whilst attempting to make a 

 hurried sketch, with my fingers so benumbed that I could 

 scarcely hold the pencil, it was almost a relief to be plodding 

 on again knee-deep through the snow, down towards where 

 we camped for the night, four or five miles farther on, after 

 a descent, for the most part over deep snow, of some 2000 

 feet. 



The cold here at night was terrible. All the wraps I 

 possessed failed to keep out the piercing wind, so we waited 

 until the rising sun warmed us up before we set out next 

 day. We only went four or five miles, chiefly along the 

 stony bed of the Sakchu — a stream of snow-water, which 

 had to be forded several times — to a spot where there was 

 some grazing for the poor jooboos, which had been fasting 

 for two days. Here we were interviewed by a deputation 

 of Hoonyas, sent by the Jongpen from his residence at Dapa, 

 about twenty miles off, to arrange about the period he was to 

 permit us to remain in Tibetan territory. At first these 

 emissaries would hear of nothing more than eight days ; 

 but after a good deal of persuasion from Puddoo, and their 

 hearts had been softened by a bottle of whisky, they eventu- 

 ally agreed to fifteen, beyond which they said it was impos- 

 sible to extend the permission without the sanction of the 

 Jongpen. To this functionary I therefore sent by them a 

 present of a revolver, accompanied by a request that, as I 



