HOT SPRINGS 185 



received when on the inuuiitain some days before, and 

 I never was able to iind out whether he was telling a 

 falsehood or whether my men had invented tlie message 

 said to have come from him. I strongly suspect, how- 

 ever, that his royal memory was rather short. He was 

 much interested in the gun I was carrying (an ordinary 

 12-bore double), and wanted to know^ how far it would 

 kill. He seemed to be an intelligent man, well in- 

 formed considering the country in which he lived, and 

 he had been to Pekin. He is a practically independent 

 chieftain, but sends tribute once in two years to Pekin, 

 and has frequent disputes as to questions of jurisdiction 

 with the Chinese officials at Ta-tsien-lu. He is wealthy, 

 as things go there, his riches being principally in land, 

 cattle, and ponies, owning several hundreds of the latter. 

 About ten li further on I reached a Tibetan hamlet, 

 being, in fact, one of his dairy-farms, where I slept in 

 a house owned by his Majesty, and I was lucky enough 

 to get delicious milk and butter, though the place 

 was rather dirty. The house was built in the Tibetan 

 fashion, of loose stones, clay being used to fill the inter- 

 stices, the roof being shingled with long split-pine shingles 

 upon which w^ere placed large stones to prevent the high 

 winds, so prevalent here, blowing them off. Here there 

 are three hot springs, each issuing from the top of a 

 yellowish-brown conical rock. These cones have evidently 



