ADVENTURES IN TIBET 279 



pines, and the mountains what sacred host it was that 

 passed, I admit that I was filled with a religious 

 emotion ; and in spite of the Far-Eastern colour and 

 the taint of modernism introduced by the rifles, I seemed 

 to see the People of God marching past the foot of 

 Sinai." 



The following quotation from Captain M.S. Wellby's 

 record of a journey through unknown Tibet will give 

 an idea of the difficulties in the way of travel in that 

 country l : " We had not marched very far with our 

 two guides before they pointed out to us two roa ; ds. 

 One road continued down the valley we were in for 

 a few more miles, and then turned up to the left hand 

 along another nullah. The second road led over the 

 hills into the same nullah, cutting off a corner. We had 

 already discovered that with baggage animals the 

 longest way round is the shortest way there, or in other 

 words, that a dozen miles of level marching is easier 

 for them, and takes less out of them, than half a dozen 

 miles of steep climbing, which almost invariably did 

 harm to one or more animals. We therefore sent on 

 the mules to make the detour, while we ourselves cut 

 across the hills. Even during this short climb we saw 

 both ovis ammon and goa, and hitting off the nullah 

 before the arrival of our caravan, we sat down by the 

 stream that wound its way to the main one, and, having 

 found some dry droppings, made our fire and the water 

 boil. 



As time wore on we began to grow anxious about 

 our caravan, and suspected that something adverse must 

 have happened. We were just about to retrace our 

 steps when the leading mules made their appearance 

 1 See Bibliography, 49. 



